Stigma
by Juular
Summary: A mysterious, injured woman is found by YRP and brought aboard their airship. What follows is a story of discovered love and horror as a powerful evil has followed the woman and plans to kill her and everyone else aboard the Celsius. OCxRikku - Enjoy
1. Losing the Quarry

_I do not own Final Fantasy or any characters therein. I do, however, own my original characters. Enjoy -_

______________________________________________________

Chapter 1: Losing the Quarry

_Fuck!_ My mind screamed as the small craft nearly flipped after ramping the sand dune. I pulled hard on the controls to try and straighten the thing, but then remembered that these things didn't work like that. By a small amount of luck I managed not to crash. Not too far away was another of the crafts. Spread out on either side of me were two more, four crafts in all. The two to my sides were piloted by my comrades. The one in front of us was, well, not.

These vehicles weren't native to this world. They were similar, but slightly more advanced. They were only built to seat one person, but there was room on the side of the craft for someone to hang on if need be.

How that freak managed to steal one of these things and get out before we could contain him, I had no idea. I took a hand from the controls and hit the small link on my shoulder.

"Zach, ya there?" I yelled over the fan behind me.

A cacophony of noise filtered back followed by the voice of my teammate.

"I'm readin' ya loud and clear there, Sam. How's my girl doin'?"

"Peachy." I growled, my craft threatening to turn me into a permanent part of the desert. I hit a larger dune and ramped again. My eyes flashed briefly down near my legs were two large, black cases were strapped to the craft. "Got an idea about when this bastards' gonna do sumthin' other than this?"

"You know him, we never know just what the fuck he'll do." Zach laughed.

"This isn't funny, Zach."

"I know, couldn't help myself." I groaned gunned the craft as the sand flattened. I quickly pulled ahead of my two comrades and started gaining on my quarry.

I fingered a switch and a small cannon rolled up from the front of the craft. It twisted, trying to get a lock on the opposing vehicle. The turret paused and fired with a dull _whump! _The vehicle swerved, narrowly avoiding the blast. A cloud of sand erupted into the air.

"_Shit!_" I covered my eyes with my arm as I flew through the cloud, trying not to breathe. I felt the sun unhindered on my skin again and my hand went back to the vehicle's controls. I sucked in a breath.

Too late.

I hit another dune and probably would have stuck it if there hadn't been another dune rising up not moments after the one I flew from. In a last attempt to make sure I didn't get hit with the brunt of the crash I swung the control stick to the side before I was launched from the dune.

I ducked down and my arms covered my head and neck. The craft swung around and the back slammed into the dune with a shriek as the paper-thin vehicle was crushed by its own velocity. The small craft continued to move, though.

It flipped over the dune and came down upside down. The crumpled fan deflected most of the force, but then the vehicle slammed onto its side, jolting me. My head connected with the side of the craft and my vision went black.

______________________________________________________

My eyes opened slowly. Gray blobs instead of actual images met my eyes. I groaned and screwed my eyes shut. I began to go through a mental check of what was wrong with me. My legs and feet were fine, that was good. My right arm and hand were fine, the fingers on my right hand were a little sore. My left elbow and wrist hurt, and I could barely move the fingers on that hand.

With my right hand I applied pressure to my ribs. One of them was injured, but not broken. I opened my eyes again and let my pupils readjust to the world around me. Slowly the gray blobs formed into shapes. After a few more minutes my vision was almost completely back to normal. I swept my eyes over my surroundings.

I was in a bed, which was strange. I half expected to still be in that fucked up craft. I at least should have been at High Command. This didn't seem like any of their medical facilities. Or at least none of the ones I had been to.

I was alone in a room. The ceiling and walls looked wooden. There were two doors and a small dresser by the bed. I looked straight up and could just make out the outline of windows. That would explain the lighting, seeing as how there were no other light sources, save for a lamp on the dresser and that was most certainly turned off.

I looked down at myself. My left elbow and wrist were both in small, separate bandages. I was wearing a white t-shirt and panties, but my clothes were nowhere to be seen. The shirt and underwear, I knew, were mine.

I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. I let out a low yelp and my vision swam. A wave of nausea swept over me and I shut my eyes, a wave of pain came from the side of my head and my chest. I slowly laid back down and opened my eyes.

I heard a small creak and looked over as one of the doors opened just a crack. My eyes searched the opening, trying to see who it was. The door closed quickly, but just as quietly as it had opened. I heard footsteps slowly fade away as if someone were running away.

"Perfect, what have you gotten yourself into this time, Sam?" I asked myself. I had an irritating habit of thinking out loud more than quietly to myself.

A minute later I heard the footsteps returning at a much slower pace. The door opened slowly and a girl walked in. She had blonde hair and shocking emerald eyes with what seemed like spirals in them. Her hair had multiple braids in it, with colorful beads adorning them. A blue bandana was wrapped around her forehead. What surprised me was how much of her was exposed. She wore a bikini top and a small brown skirt, thong straps rose above her skirt and hugged her hips. She had on fingerless gloves, a bright red and yellow scarf around her neck, and a strange sleeve on each arm. I had a good view of her perfectly tanned body.

A broad smile formed on her face and she bounced close to the bed.

"Hi!" she said happily.

"Hi." I groaned in response.

"I'm Rikku." she said, still just as bubbly.

"Sam." I said. "Tell me sumthin' . . Rikku, right?" she nodded. "Where am I?" I asked.

"On our airship, the Celsius. Home of you're friendly neighborhood Gullwings!" I decided to ignore that.

"Uh-huh." I said. "How did I get here?"

"We were flying over Bikanel desert when we detected some sphere waves. We went down and found ya. We got all of your things. Funny, it was your sphere that saved you." she giggled.

I nodded, then something clicked. Oh _shit_! My eyes slowly widened. She noticed this.

"Oh, don't worry, we didn't watch it, we stowed it with the rest of your stuff." she said. I sighed and calmed down. My eyes flashed back to the girl.

"Hey, do you have any pain killers?" I asked. Rikku tilted her head, her spiral eyes watching me quizzically. "Sumthin' I can take for the pain?" I asked, motioning to my head.

"Oh!" her eyes lit up. "Don't worry, Yunie will be here any second and well fix you up!" she said. The door opened and a second girl walked in. She had short, brown hair and surprisingly her eyes were not both the same color. One was a deep blue and the other was a sparkling green. She wore a white, sleeveless shirt, small, tight shorts, and a long, ruffled piece of cloth hung from her belt. She was carrying a small pouch in her hands. She bowed quickly.

"Hi, I'm Yuna." her voice was soft, calm.

"I'm Sam." I said . . again.

"Sam." a soft smile appeared on her lips. She seemed shy. She opened the pouch and pulled out a bottle. She opened it and approached the bed. "Can you sit up?" she asked

"Not without _throwing_ up." I said. Yuna nodded and came closer to the bed. She slid a hand under my head and lifted it gently, bringing the bottle to my lips. Whatever it was it didn't taste horrible. In fact it didn't really have much of a taste at all, kind of like water. I would soon learn that it had a strange after-taste though.

A cool wave washed over me, I felt the throb in my head ebb. I just as quickly felt something else wash over me as well: Exhaustion. Yuna lowered my head back to the pillow and saw my eyelids start to droop. She nodded and put the empty bottle back into the pouch. She whispered something to Rikku and then left.

The younger girl paused at the doorway, watching me momentarily before leaving. I closed my eyes as I heard the door click shut. I felt myself falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

______________________________________________________

I didn't know just how long I had slept. I simply opened my eyes what felt like only mere seconds later. Truth be told I felt more rested. Sunlight was drifting through the window above me. It was brighter than the last time I was awake. I guessed that I had slept clear through the night. It felt like it was still fairly early in the morning.

I could see particles of dust floating in the light. Drifting in the air, barely moving. I blinked and looked around. Same room, so at least I hadn't been dreaming. I was still alone and could feel a slight vibration as I was laying there. The airship must've been moving.

I tried flexing the fingers on my left hand and was happy to find that it didn't hurt, as much, anymore. Whatever they, Yuna, had given me really worked. I could move my left elbow easier. But I wasn't about to try moving just yet.

I was surprised that I wasn't cold. The only thing on the bed was a single sheet. There was a small vent by the side of the bed. I lowered my hand to it and felt warm air blow through. I shrugged. _Idiot_.

"So, what now Samantha?" I asked my self quietly. I used my full name, which shocked me. It meant that I really was at a loss at what to do. Ah, training never prepares you for this kind of crap. I sighed and tried to think of a way I could get out of here, or at least contact High Command and tell them where I was.

The latter seemed the better choice. I was on a fucking airship, I wasn't about to go anywhere. I would need to find my communicator, hopefully it hadn't fallen off in the crash, they were small and I doubted that these people would have found it if they hadn't been looking for it.

I ran my fingers through my hair, which was jet black and _very_ short. My eyes were the color of ice. I was also rather pale, seeing as how in my line of . . business, for lack of a better word . . I didn't get out much. My hair felt like it hadn't been washed in a while, which raised a question.

"I wonder how long I've been here." I said to myself. I was almost positive that they would have come to the wreckage of my craft after the chase was over. To bring me back alive or dead, that and get rid of the craft. Which means that I was probably presumed missing. So these people, what had Rikku said, Gulls? I shook my head. It meant that they found me pretty quickly after the crash.

Of course I could've been out of it for longer, I had hit my head pretty hard, from how it felt.

I heard footsteps from the hall. It sounded like two or more people. I listened, trying to figure out how many people and how close to the door they were. The first ones that I had heard had been pretty soft, and those had been drowned out by what sound like high heels or boots, maybe both. I could hear voices, like someone was talking, but they were either whispering or farther away because I couldn't make out what they were saying.

I heard footsteps again, this time growing farther away. I closed my eyes and decided to rest and wait for something to happen. The door creaked and my eyes shot open, already locked on the door. The door opened quietly and Rikku walked in. She was holding something, a bundle, under her arm.

"Hi. I brought your clothes." she said.

"Oh, thanks." I said. "Did you find anything on them, a small black thing on the shoulder, maybe?" I asked. Rikku bit her lower lip and her eyes moved around the room as she thought.

"Nope." she shook her head. "Why, was it important?"

"Uh, no." _Fuck_! Oh well.

"Yunie wanted me to see if you were feeling better." she said, smiling.

"A little." I decided to try sitting up. Slowly I lifted myself with my right arm and leaned on it. My chest didn't hurt as much and I didn't get dizzy and sick like the first time. I sat up all the way and nodded "Definitely better." I said.

"There's a shower right there," she pointed to the second door, "If you can stand you're more than welcome to use it." she said happily. I nodded and pushed the sheet off. I slid off the bed and my feet touched the wooden floor. I don't know how, since the room was warm, but the floor was like fucking ice! Rikku saw the expression on my face and tried not to laugh, that kind gesture lasted about three seconds before she was bent over, hugging herself, laughing uncontrollably.

I grimaced, apparently I missed the funny part. "My clothes, please." I held out my hand and after a few more seconds the girl handed me my clothes. I looked around the room and then noticed something on the other side of the bed. I hadn't noticed it because it was on the floor, but a white bedroll had been spread.

"Hey, Rikku?"

She took a deep breath and managed to stop laughing, "Yeah?"

"Whose room is this?" I asked.

"Oh, uh," her face turned a soft shade of red, "mine." I nodded.

"So where have you been sleeping?" I asked. She pointed to the bedroll. I nodded. "Sorry." I said.

The hyper girl shook her head, "It's okay. You were hurt, you didn't need to be sleepin' on the floor." she said. I shrugged and walked into the small bathroom. Once the door was shut I stripped and got into the shower.

I made the water hot, warm was just not good enough. I closed my eyes and let the water run over my face and body, relaxing me. I found a bottle of shampoo and another of body wash so made use of those. After I had sufficiently cleaned myself I turned the shower off and stepped out. I looked at myself in the mirror. To tell you the truth I wasn't exactly beautiful. I had seen some battle and it showed.

A long scar ran from my forehead, barely passing around my eye, to my right cheek. Yeah, that one had hurt a little. Another scar marred my stomach. Another painful wound. If I turned around and looked at my back I would have seen plenty more injuries. One cut ran down halfway from my left shoulder to the elbow.

I sighed and dried off. I had to wear the same white shirt and underwear, seeing as how I had no others. My clothes were simple, for the most part I wore a simple tan jumpsuit, it was made out of a light, leather-like material and wasn't bulky. The shoulders, waist, and knees of the suit were a darker shade of brown.

I noticed that the jumpsuit seemed to have been cleaned. I stepped into it and zipped it up a little more than half way, leaving it open enough to see the undershirt. My boots had also been given back to me, my socks hanging halfway out of the tops. I slipped these back on and left the bathroom.

Rikku was sitting on the bedroll, looking at a small box. I recognized it immediately.

"Um, Rikku, I . ." she jumped when I spoke. "Sorry."

"No problem." she handed me the box. "Like I said, no on has watched it." I opened the box and looked at the sphere inside. Yeah, same one. "We didn't know if it was personal or if you were a sphere hunter." she said.

"Oh, its personal." I said quickly. Anything to keep people from prying. Rikku bit her lower lip for a moment then started bouncing up and down excitedly.

"Oh, want me to show you around the ship?" she asked. I thought about it for a second, then nodded.

"Sure, why not."

"Follow me!" she said. She opened the door and bounced out of the room. As fast as I could I stuffed the box under a pillow and followed her, closing the door behind me.

I came out on a balcony. The room was on the far left, at the end of a row of three rooms. I followed the railing and came to a small area passed the rooms. There was a small rug, a couch and two chairs. A stairway led from this area down to a lower level.

Rikku was talking to Yuna, still just as excited, I didn't know what about. Yuna saw me and smiled.

"It's good to see you're feeling better." she said.

"Thanks to you." I said. "If not I'd probably be dead right now." I lied. It really was a lie. Eventually Zach would've come back.

"I did what I could." she said, a shy smile on her lips.

"Hey, so did I!" Rikku poked Yuna in the shoulder. Yuna giggled.

"And so did Rikku." she said.

"Well we need to get moving, I'm showing Sammy the ship." Sammy? What the hell?! I sighed and decided to bear with it. After all, they did go through all the pain to rescue me.

"I'm ready when you are, Rikku."

"Kay! Lets go." She bounced down the stairs.

"Sugar rush?" I asked, looking to Yuna.

She giggled, "No, she's just being Rikku." I nodded and after turning away I raised my eyebrows and mouthed, "Damn!" Rikku was waiting by what looked like a bar on the lower level. Standing behind it was, well, something. It was blue, and had _big _eyes. Its head seemed to be tilted slightly and I quietly wondered if it was partially due whatever the fuck was on the sides of its head! It also seemed to have two antennae.

"Sam, this is Barkeep." Rikku said. The thing inclined its head a little.

"Helloo mish Sam." it said. I blinked and tried to determine whether it was male or female.

"Hi." I said, holding up my hand in a short greeting.

"If you need anything to drink, he's your man, er, Hypello." I guessed it was a guy because of what Rikku said, and Hypello must've been its race.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said, only half of me paying attention. Rikku ran from the bar to a door and ran through it. I followed her, the door sliding open for me as I approached. I walked through a short corridor to an elevator and got in. Rikku hit a destination and the elevator jerked to life.

Rikku sat on the rail, steadying herself with her hands. Somehow she seemed oddly close to me. I shook off the feeling. So what if she was? Maybe Rikku was the kind of person who needed to be near someone.

How the fuck does that make sense? The elevator stopped and Rikku jumped down. "I decided to show you this room first since it's the least interesting." she said. I could hear a dull pounding coming from down the hall. The doors slid open and the noise grew louder. Rikku walked down the hall and I followed.

We entered a room that was hot, humid, and loud as fuck. "The engine room." I said, not surprised that I couldn't hear myself.

"The engine room!" Rikku said. I actually heard her. Damn, that must've been loud. She led me back to the elevator and hit another button. I felt it jerk and a minute later it opened.

We walked down the hall and into a large room. Rikku ran down the steps, I followed at a more leisurely pace. There were three people in the room. One was a small boy sitting at a computer, Shinra. I thought the getup was a little weird. Another was Buddy. And the last one was Brother, who was Rikku's older brother. He seemed a little strange.

He was covered in tattoos and started yelling at Rikku incoherently. Half in English and half in another language. After a few minutes Rikku led me back to the elevator, Brother still yelling at us.

"The next stop is the last." Rikku said. "And its also the best." she said, looking down at me from where she sat. Was it just me or was she even closer now? Like earlier I ignored it and pretty soon the elevator stopped.

Rikku grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the elevator. To my surprise we were on top of the airship. A cold wind buffeted me and Rikku's hair was everywhere. I couldn't help but smile.

I noticed someone standing near the edge of the ship. Rikku grinned and pulled me over to them. What came to mind when I first saw her was: Don't fuck with her! The first thing I noticed was that she was dressed in all black. Tight-fitting leather and boots with heels, and multiple belts. Her hair was silver and her skin pale. When she turned to us I flinched. Her eyes were crimson.

I didn't flinch because of her though.

In my mind I saw a set of glowing, crimson eyes shining at me in the dark. The eyes were all too human, but the thing that stood there wasn't entirely human, it just looked it. It came closer and grinned, canine longer than normal. Not like a vampire, but longer than any human's.

I was back in reality. The woman glared at me, eyes showing a combination of emptiness and distrust. Rikku walked closer to the woman and pointed at me.

"Paine, this is Sam. Sam, this is Paine." she said. I nodded a greeting. She didn't seem like the kind of person you'd strike up a conversation with. She did the same and her gaze went back to the sky.

"Well, aren't you gonna say sumthin'?" Rikku asked. Paine said nothing.

"Maybe she doesn't want to be bothered, Rikku." I said. Rikku looked at her friend again and then walked back to me.

"Yeah, well. She never wants to be bothered." Rikku said. We went back into the elevator and Rikku hit the button for the cabin. The elevator descended somewhat and then stopped. Rikku and I walked out and went to the bar.

Rikku asked for a glass of juice and I asked for water. I sipped at the liquid and then noticed something out the corner of my eye. I decided to make sure I wasn't imagining it. I took a few more sips and then put the glass down. Rikku put hers down too.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. "Rikku?"

"Hmm?" she asked, putting on her most innocent smile.

Cute.

"You were, uh, mimicking me." I said. The girl feigned shock. "Oh please you're not that good an actor."

"Hey!" she said. She poked me once in the shoulder. "Big meanie." she poked me again in my side.

I laughed and finished the last of my water.

______________________________________________________

After Rikku showed me around I wandered the ship on my own for a little while. I made sure to look around each different room carefully, trying to memorize the ship.

When I got back to the deck I just wound up standing next to Paine for a little while before going back down into the ship. Dinner was served by Barkeep, and I was surprised to find that it wasn't too bad.

Afterwards I relaxed in the lounge area on top of the stairs for a short while. After sometime passed Yuna went to her room, saying goodnight to me and Rikku.

I had planned to probably sleep on the couch, but after Paine walked silently to her own room Rikku let out a loud yawn and told me I was still sleeping in her room.

Rikku closed the door behind us when we walked in.

"You can sleep on the bed." Rikku said. I shook my head.

"It's your bed, I'll sleep on the bedroll." I said. Rikku was about to object but I gave her a look that told her I meant it. She nodded and went into the bathroom to change. I grabbed the sphere and hid it under my new pillow. I undid the catches on my boots and slid them off, keeping my socks on. Rikku came out of the bathroom just as I was taking off my jumpsuit. She was wearing a long piece of clothing, like a shirt, that reached her knees and was sliding off one shoulder. She blushed slightly but slipped into bed. I folded the suit and laid it down by my boots.

I laid down on the bedroll and pulled the blanket over me. I drew one knee up and stared at the ceiling. Rikku yawned and turned over towards me.

"Goodnight, Sam." she said, her voice telling me just how tired she was. I smiled.

"Goodnight, Rikku." I said. Most of the shadows in the room covered me, seeing as how none of the light from the windows reached me. I looked up towards Rikku once, my eyes half open. I was confused when I saw her watching me.

A few minutes later I heard her breathing turn shallow as she drifted off to sleep. I closed my eyes shortly after and let myself fall into the abyss.

______________________________________________________

Author's Note: Tell me what you think. I know that it lacks much of a plot now, but one will develop. I'm uncertain how long it will take to write another chapter, but I will try, I really enjoyed writing this. Sam is a little different from some characters that I'm used to writing, I'm still trying to find that area to center her personality on. This chapter was mainly to introduce this version of the X-2 universe. Yes, I know I changed the cabin around some but it will work into something later in the story. Both in the romantic and main plot. So, keep watching for the next chapter in the story, for now I need to get back to writing Lost in Space.

- Thank-you for reading.


	2. Paranoia

Chapter 2: Paranoia?

Doomed. We were all doomed. Fucking idiot went off by himself. We had come _so_ close to actually killing him this time, and then some fuck decides to go off by himself. We had injured him, he was burned, bound, and bleeding with no chance of recovery.

Well, now he had a new host.

He had transferred without us knowing and then managed to sneak into our midst before revealing himself. He killed two of us before we knew what was happening. That left seven. Cassidy was beside me, her black robes hiding her, but nothing could hide you from this monster. Zach was with me also, a three-way back-to-back formation. The last four guarded the four doorways.

"Damned idiot!" Cassidy hissed. Zach lowered his gun to his side and sneered.

"So, _so_ close!" he mocked crying.

"Zach!" Cassidy hissed, her tone more menacing.

"Sorry." he mumbled, shifting the gun nervously. I sighed, we all had our habits, unfortunately his was to act like a complete idiot whenever he was nervous.

"Movement." one of the guards called.

"That's expected." Zach said.

"The thing can move faster than we can run, of course you saw movement, I want you to watch out for him stopping!" I yelled.

"Yes ma'am!" was the reply.

"The is what you get when you only send three experienced soldiers and seven inexperienced soldiers on a mission." Zach said.

"Yeah, I've been wondering that myself." I said.

"What?" Cassidy asked.

"Why High Command only sent three _good_ soldiers after a priority-one enemy!" I snarled.

"And now, we are going to die!" Zach muttered, voice drenched in anger.

"I see him!" a guard cried. The sound of automatic weapon fire was quickly cut off by a horrific scream from the soldier. Something resembling a large, translucent hand grabbed him and pulled him out of the room faster than I could blink. There was a sickening _crack_ from the room beyond and the top half of the man was thrown back in, his eyes frozen in a look of absolute horror.

"Oh." one of the other soldiers shuddered, looking back at the remains.

"You stupid fuck! Look out!" I yelled. Her head snapped back and a massive shockwave slammed into her body, sending her flying back through the door the last soldier had been killed beyond. She screamed and then was silent.

The last soldier ran back to us. We parted and let him join, forming a four-way back-to-back. We watched, every so often seeing a blur shoot pass one of the doors.

I leveled my two swords, waiting. He was at full power and completely uninjured. This was not good. Another blur, another flinch. We all heard a deep, throaty chuckle resound from the walls.

"He . . he's a-all around . . us." the last soldier stammered, his voice unsteady.

"Technically."

"Cassidy!" I barked.

"What? Technically he is all around us."

"But not literally." Zach said. We heard a deep _thud_ and the walls shook. "Oh, shit." a large welt had been punched into the wall. Another _thud_ and one of the marks was in front of me. Several more followed, then we heard nothing.

We waited for what seemed like hours. The soldier was about to die of fright. His knees were set to buckle and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably.

"Think he left?" Zach asked. A deep rumble filled the building.

"I hate you." I said, teeth clenched. A massive shockwave slammed into us. The breath was knocked out of me and I felt sick, half of the force had connected with my gut. We were strewn across the room. Cassidy, Zach, and myself were all slammed into walls. My left arm connected with the hard stone and my sword clattered to the ground.

I winced and gripped my sword tighter with my right hand. My left arm was pretty much dead, the force of the blast had crushed my shoulder, I could already feel blood oozing out of a gash that the crash into the wall had opened up.

The soldier was the unfortunate one. He had been thrown out of the room. I couldn't see him, but I could hear him whimpering as he picked up his weapon and started blind firing in all directions.

Stupid little . . .

A deep, unearthly roar shook the walls. The man screamed and I heard his gun fall to the floor. For a minute or so nothing happened. I tried standing but found that my leg, while not broken, was hurt. I slipped back to the floor, gritting my teeth.

I looked out into the black of the doorway beyond me. Two red pinpricks of light blinked into existence. I froze. I heard Cassidy groan and shift, obviously seeing the same thing. Zach struggled to lift his gun, but dropped it. His right arm had received the same damage that my left arm had. Damn, that gun was what had dealt most of the damage to the thing earlier.

The crimson lights advanced slowly. The being was still hidden by the shadows so I couldn't see all of him, but much of his face was visible and I could make out his form. He was easily eight feet tall, but seemed thin. That was ironic. His strength was monumental.

An evil grin played across his face, revealing his two unnaturally long canines. I could just barely make out the direction his eyes were looking in. The flaming spheres turned from Zach, to Cassidy, and then landed on me. I shifted again, trying to raise my sword in a defensive position. It made absolutely no difference, in my state he could obliterate me without barely thinking.

"Well, what the fuck are you waitin' for?" Zach spat.

"Oh, I'm not waiting for anything, Zachary." he said. His voice was deep and throaty. His voice always sounded low, but it carried. Whenever he spoke his mouth barely moved, that same evil smile stayed close to motionless when he was talking. "I was simply thinking."

"Oh really? Care to let us in on it?" Cassidy growled.

His smile vanished, "By all means." he chuckled, the sound shook me to my core. "I was going to kill you, but seeing as how none of you can move, it just wouldn't be fitting. Besides, it would get so very boring to kill my three biggest fans."

That fuck always was full of himself.

"You're letting us live?!" Zach breathed. His voice showed his utter disbelief.

"Hmm, yes. But, I will not let you go unscathed." he approached me first.

"Hey. _Hey_!" Zach yelled. "Leave her alone you sick bastard!" the thing ignored him. My eyes locked onto those crimson ones. They were burning with greed, malice, power, and lust. I couldn't look away from his eyes. Even as he knelt down and grabbed my throat. He pulled me away from the wall, pain shot through me from my leg and arm. His fingers traced my neck, ice cold against my skin. A sickening fear twisted my stomach and my heart froze. I new what was coming and silently begged that it would not happen.

His lips touched my neck and his mouth opened. His canines brushed my neck and then pricked me. That was all it took. What happened next . . . my mind clouded and the vision that hit me was so horrible so gruesome . . . .

I screamed.

______________________________________________________

I shot up. My skin was covered in sweat, but I was shivering. My body temperature was freezing, but the main cause for my shaking was the complete, outright fear that coursed through my veins like a poison.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and yelped. I jumped away and my back hit the wall, I crouched down, hugging myself. I screwed my eyes shut and sank down, burying my self into a corner. The hand touched me again and I stiffened.

"Sam?" a soft voice whispered. I opened my eyes and they sought out the speaker. Rikku was kneeling beside me. Her face was a mixture of fear and concern. Her hand was on my shoulder.

Her touch was so warm, and I was so cold . . .

"Rikku . ." I managed to gasp before the tears started streaming down my face. Rikku's arms wrapped around my shoulders and she huddled up against me. I leaned my head against her shoulder and wept, my body still shaking from both fear and my sobbing. She whispered something to me, I couldn't make it out but found her voice soothing.

Very soon I had stopped crying but my face was buried in the crook of her neck. My body was still shaking, wracked by fear. Not merely from the nightmare, but from two pinpricks of heat on my neck.

"It's okay." Rikku whispered, voice full of concern. I shook my head slowly. Rikku stood and grabbed my shoulders, slowly standing me up as well. My legs were like rubber. I didn't meet her gaze. "Here." she led me to her bed and told me lay down. Some part of me broke through for a moment and resisted, but in the end she won. I curled up under the sheet, the soft bed feeling so rejuvenating. Rikku climbed into the bed too and wrapped her arms around me, hugging me close.

"I've had some pretty nasty nightmares too." she said. "It's gonna be alright." I buried my head against her chest and I heard her heartbeat as she held me. It strangely erratic. Maybe I'd scared her or something.

"Ri . . Rikku . .?"

"Shh . . Just go to sleep." she whispered. I nodded and pushed myself closer to her, thankful for the comforting heat her small body gave off. She merely held me tighter and slowly I fell back asleep, silently thanking Rikku and praying that that nightmare would not come again.

It didn't.

______________________________________________________

I woke up, still in Rikku's arms. For a second I was confused, why was I . . ?

An image flashed through my head. Red eyes and fangs. I shivered and the memories from last night rushed through me. My head had still been against the younger girl's chest when I woke up. As carefully as I could I lifted my head. She had been resting her head on mine and shifted when I did. She let out a small sigh and her grip loosened. I didn't move too much, just enough to get into a more comfortable position.

She cuddled up to me in her sleep and I couldn't help but smile. It was cute. I lifted one hand and slowly rubbed two points on my throat. My fingers brushed over something, I flinched.

I drew in a shallow breath and checked again. Fuck, they really were there. That had been three years ago, the scars had been gone for two! So how the hell did . . shit!

"Don't tell me he's followed me." I groaned. Sam you stupid . . I sighed as Rikku stirred. Her eyes opened slowly, looking around and then locking onto me. Her emerald eyes trailed up me and met my ice colored eyes.

"G'mornin'." She said, still half asleep.

"Morning." I whispered, the sudden thought still lingering in the back of my head.

"Feeling better?" she asked, voice heavy with sleep.

"Huh, oh . . yeah." I smiled, "Thanks, for last night." I said quietly.

"No prob'm." her eyes closed and I heard her go back to sleep. I watched her for a minute, wondering if I'd inadvertently put this ship and its people in danger. Well, it'd go along with the other shit that happened so far in my life.

I lifted a finger and absentmindedly trailed it down the side of her face. She was so young, full of life. All of the people on this ship still had their own lives to live, and I probably just ruined them.

If he did follow me I was not going to let the mother fucker hurt _anyone_ on this ship!

I decided to just go back to sleep for a little while. I was too comfortable and didn't want to move. Even a warrior can get a little lazy, so sue me. I closed my eyes and slept.

The next time I woke up Rikku was gone. It took me a moment to hear the shower running. I stretched out in the bed, thankful to have at least a few minutes in it alone.

Shortly after, I heard the shower turn off and a minute later Rikku stepped out wearing the same thing she had worn yesterday. Strange. She smiled when she saw me awake.

"Ya know, you looked kinda scary last night." she said, a happy tone to her voice.

"Sorry about that." I sighed and got up. "Finished in there?" I asked. She nodded and I grabbed my clothes and headed into the bathroom.

After showering I looked in the mirror and at my neck. Sure enough two tiny red dots were on my neck. I sucked in a breath and shuddered. This wasn't good.

At fucking all.

I dried off and got dressed. I needed to check something, but found that Rikku was still in the room. Fuck, had she been waiting for me? She was eyeing me, the strange glint in those spiral eyes was unsettling.

"Rikku?"

She snapped out of it, "Oh, hey Sammy."

Oh , damn it, not that stupid name again, "Yeah?" I asked cautiously.

"You look like a warrior."

"Um, sure, why not." I hesitated.

"What I mean is I wanna know if you'd wanna spar with me later? I haven't had much to do lately and I've fought Paine so many times its boring."

I blinked, "Sure, why not."

She punched the ceiling, "Yes!" I jumped. Yeah, it was gonna be a while before I got used to that. "Come on, lets go get breakfast." she said. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me along behind her.

What was I a dog on a fucking leash? I shrugged it off and let her, she seemed really excited and I didn't want to dampen her mood by being a jerk.

Breakfast was served by Barkeep, and like the dinner it was really good. The eggs tasted a little different than I was used to, but I didn't mind. Food is food. I was laying on the couch on the higher level of the cabin after breakfast when Rikku bounded over to me.

"Hey, can you speak Al Bhed?" she asked, tilting her head. Al what? I shook my head. She bit her bottom lip for a second. "I know, I can teach ya!"

"Say wha . ." I paused, it could be useful. "Sure, whatever makes you happy." She laughed and her eyes shone. She sat down on the couch, literally on my legs. "Um, Rikku . . ." I pointed to where she was sitting.

"Oh, no wonder I was so uncomfortable." she stood and I moved my legs. After sitting back down she started what would become the first of many lessons later.

She was surprised how quickly I caught on. I decided against telling her I knew over three-hundred different languages. Considering there probably weren't that many languages on this world.

After around an hour of teaching me she ran off. To tell you the truth I was surprised she could sit as still as she had for an hour without spontaneously combusting. I walked down to the engine room an hour later to see what kind of technology they had.

I had seen better. High Command, for example. There were hundreds of other cultures whose technologies were far superior. Still, for this world my guess was that it was pretty advanced.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and whirled around. Rikku jumped back, a wide grin on her face and a strange look in her eyes. She motioned towards the elevator and I joined her. She didn't hit any locations once we were in. She just wanted us out of the noise.

"So, ya ready to spar?" she said. I suddenly noticed two strange daggers sheathed at the back of her waist.

"Sure, but I don't have any weapons." total lie. I did have weapons, three swords. They were in the black cases, but those had yet to be given back to me. They couldn't be opened by anyone but me. These swords were too dangerous to spar with. They were sharpened to the point where close to nothing could stop them. They were also coated with a kind of poison that served a special purpose in my line of business.

Rikku's eyes trailed the inside of the elevator as she thought of what to do. She snapped her fingers as the lightbulb clicked on. She hit the cabin button and the elevator rose. Once it stopped she looked over at me.

"Just wait here." then she ran off. I inclined my head and sighed. I would never understand this little enigma. A few minutes later she came back. She handed me something.

"I had a spare." she said. "There are three spheres in there. Warrior, dark knight, and songstress." I blinked a couple of times. I looked down at the thing again and realized I had seen one of these before. High Command rarely used them, I never guessed they came from this world.

I selected the warrior sphere and was quickly engulfed in light. When the light had dissipated I was wearing a gray leather top and black leather pants. Sheathed on my belt was a long, ornate sword. I slipped the grid into a pouch on my belt and Rikku hit the button for the deck.

Once we arrived I let the cool wind hit me full force. It was so refreshing up here. So energizing. I was glad we were alone, it would be so much easier that way. I unsheathed the sword and swung it a few times, getting a feel of the weight. It was perfect.

"Ready?" Rikku walked farther out onto the deck and faced me. She slid her daggers out slowly and twirled them once. I nodded and she slowly started walking in a circle around me. She carefully and methodically moved herself. I held my sword at my side, turning only to follow her movements, but not moving much myself. She giggled and then lunged.

She faked right then danced left. I swung with one arm, using my elbow to move the sword faster. She dodged the sword and spun towards me, daggers poised. I grabbed her arm and forced her down.

"Okay, you're stronger than I thought." she said, struggling against my grip. It seemed a little fake to me. "No more miss nice girl." she twisted and my grip loosened. She placed a hand on the ground and swung around, taking my legs out from under me. I hit the deck and rolled out of the way of her leg which hit where I had been pretty hard.

"That hurt?" I smirked.

"Owie." she murmured. She and I both jumped up. I decided to take the offensive. I swung and she parried. I brought the sword back and twisted it in my hand, using my elbow to swing it again. I fought using only one hand, which I was accustomed to. I repeated the process over and over, coming at her from different angles and with varied speeds.

She giggled and danced around some of my attacks, but was forced to block many of them. She made an attempt every so often to attack me, but I thwarted those plans each time with a well placed parry. This went on for some time.

That smile never left her face and made it difficult to concentrate. Once she backed up quite a ways and then charged me, trying her best at a frightening battle cry. It distracted me, but only because I doubled over laughing after watching it. She stopped short of me, looking confused.

"Big meanie." she grumbled. I rolled onto my back, hugging myself. That had to have been the funniest fucking thing I'd ever seen.

"Ri . . Rikku . . you are _not_ good at acting scary." I gasped.

"Alright then, you show me how scary you can be." she said, kicking the deck. I calmed myself down and she backed up. I stared at her, readied myself . . and then the image of her doing a battle cry flashed through my head and I was on my knees again.

I finally managed to stop laughing and stood up. I took a deep breath and looked her dead in the eyes from where I stood, giving her as cold a look as I could muster, and judging by her face it was pretty damn good.

I lifted my sword and charged, at the same time I let out the most blood curdling scream that I could. Ironically it had been inspired by my worst nightmare.

Rikku literally froze like a deer in headlights. If this was a real fight she'd be fucked. I swung the sword and then stopped just short of her neck, staring her dead in the eyes, mine still cold and angry. My eyes softened and my sword dropped to my side. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously.

"Sorry, Rikku." I said. In a flash she changed. Her eyes were shining and she tackled me. She landed right on top of me, her dagger not an inch from my temple. She smiled and I was amazed to find that my sword had slid out of reach and that she had pinned both of my hands above my head with one of hers. Her other dagger was thrown to the side. "Um, Rikku?" I shifted nervously under the smaller girl. Her face was very close to mine and there was a strange glint in her emerald eyes. The look changed and for a moment she looked confused, but then she released my hands and got up.

"I guess that means I win." she said. She grabbed her other dagger and sheathed it. "I'm kinda tired. See you at dinner?" she asked. I nodded. She turned to go back inside when I remembered something. I pulled out the grid and deactivated the sphere.

"Hey, Rikku." she turned and I tossed her the grid.

She caught it and made an O with her mouth, "Thanks!" she ran back to the elevator. I felt good being back in my old clothes. I walked out to the end of the deck and stood there for a while. The wind was deafening. The airship was still moving and I looked out over the ocean beneath us fly by in the fading light.

Beautiful.

I stood still for a minute and then felt something. It scared me. Two pinpricks of heat. They had started back up. All day they had not done this and then all of a sudden they heated up again? I wondered if that meant he was getting closer.

I whirled around and saw no one there. I slowly faced the ocean again. I swore that I could've felt something. Like a presence or an aura. I shivered and hugged myself.

"You're just being paranoid, Sam." I whispered to myself. Paranoia? Was that all this really was? I hoped that it was. I knew though, I knew he would be looking for the ones who had hunted him. But why start with me? What did I do that was so terrible as to make me his primary focus?

I stood there for a few minutes longer and then started thinking about going back down. I sighed and looked out at the ocean one last time. The last remnants of the sun were fading below the horizon.

Suddenly I felt two hands on my shoulders. I froze and was about to turn around when something else happened. I felt something on my neck. The brush of something soft, then a tiny jolt as teeth touched my skin and nipped.

I yelped and jumped forward. I turned around and found Rikku staring at me. Confusion in her eyes slowly faded to hurt. I gaped at her. Could it really be? No, it wasn't possible. That bastard never inhabited women, only men. And even if he had, for some reason, possessed Rikku, there would've been no reason to bite me if he wasn't in his true form. There was no poison while he was still hidden. Still, Rikku saw the shock on my face and the hint of fear in my eyes.

She sniffed and lowered her hands. She took a step back and hung her head, blonde hair falling like a curtain to hide her face.

"Please . ." she whimpered, her voice was so sad, it hit my heart like a knife, and the guilt spread like poison. "Please don't be angry, Sam." she murmured. She sank down, her legs splayed out beneath her. _Sam you fucking_ . . .

"Rikku, what . ."

"I don't know." she said. "I've just . . ever since I first saw you I couldn't stop thinking . . thinking about you." I gaped at her. "You were so beautiful."

Huh? She couldn't possibly be serious, me, no way in . . .

"These feeling just kept building up in me. Lots and lots of pressure." she said. "I felt like I was going to explode. I just needed to . . but when you finally woke up, I tried to deny it. I tried to tell myself that I was imagining things."

"Rikku . . ."

"But then, last night, you looked so scared. I just couldn't let you stay like that. I knew you needed someone to help you, and I _wanted_ to help you. But when I held you I just felt," she lifted her head and her eyes locked with mine, "happy." tears were running in rivers down her face. She looked so innocent, so hurt. And I had done that. I had made her cry because I had let myself get so worked up. Her head inclined again and she whispered, "Please don't be angry."

I knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder. She flinched, I guess she expected me to be angry.

"Look at me Rikku." I said gently. She turned her head upwards and her eyes met mine. "I'm not angry with you. I never was, and I hope I never will be." her lips parted, she looked a little stunned.

"Really?" she asked. I couldn't stand her sounding so sad.

"Really." I said. She nearly tackled me with a hug. She cried and I held her. A few minutes later she pulled away from me. She sniffed and wiped a hand over her eyes.

"Thank you." she said quietly. I smiled and helped her up.

"Come on, I'll bet dinners' ready." I said. She nodded and moved closer to me as we walked. I didn't say anything, I couldn't. We ate dinner like the night before. Rikku was back to her old self in no time and seemed especially happy tonight.

Rikku mentioned sparring with me and Paine perked up, she asked if I was any good.

"She's good, but I still won." she declared.

"You caught me off guard!" I cried.

"Let me guess," Paine said, "she looked scared and you stopped, then apologized. Then while you were feeling guilty she tackled you."

I was stunned, "Y . . yes!" I stammered.

"Her oldest trick. Minus ten respect points, Rikku." Paine said before taking another bite of food.

"Wha . . !" Rikku gasped and stabbed irritably at her food. Yuna giggled and I just smiled. I had no idea what Paine had meant, but Rikku's reaction had been pretty damn funny.

After we had all finished and lounged for a few minutes we all went to bed. Like the night before I changed while Rikku was in the bathroom. When she came out I was folding my jumpsuit and setting it by my boots. Rikku's eyes trailed up and down my body. It was as unsettling as fuck!

I straightened. "You okay there?" I asked.

"Huh, yeah, I'm fine." she said. I turned back to the wall and started checking the two inner pockets of the jumpsuit. She was about to get into her bed when she paused. "Uh, Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"I had been wondering if maybe you'd want to sleep with me again tonight." she said.

I turned to face her, "Huh?"

Rikku scratched the back of her head, "What I mean is that it was just comforting to me, ya know?"

I nodded, "Yeah, it was." she gave me a sad puppy dog look that sealed the deal. "Sure." I smiled and stood up. She practically jumped into the bed. I slid in slowly. I was still kind of hesitant. Now that I knew how she felt about me I wondered if this was smart.

_Ha, like you're the right person to ask if sumthin' is smart!_ I sighed. I could be really mean sometimes. I slipped under the covers and Rikku gently snuggled up to me after she turned off the lamp. Like the night before I rested my head on her chest, I found her heartbeat soothing.

I felt her hand on my head and looked up. She was playing with my boyishly short hair, gently running her fingers through it. She felt me move and looked down at me. A soft smile tugged at the corner of her lips. She slid down, closer to me and my heart began to beat faster. What the fuck was happening? She traced my jaw line with her fingers. She looked so nervous. She was young and probably scared to death.

No, wait a minute, this was Rikku. So maybe she was nervous. Her hand came to rest on my left cheek. Her hand was so warm, so soft, while my skin was almost always cold, even when I felt warm. Her spiral eyes moved around my face and then locked with my eyes.

"You're so beautiful." she said.

"No." I gently shook my head. "I'm not."

She leaned in closer to me until her face was a mere two inches from mine. I could feel her breath. Slowly she leaned closer, her face moving over my own. She was giving me a chance to turn away or to say something. When nothing happened her lips touched mine. It was so soft and quick that I wasn't sure if it had happened.

Her eyes searched mine, looking for any hesitation or disgust, they found none. She gently pressed her lips to mine. Oh, fuck it felt good! They were so unbelievably soft. Not only that . . it just felt right!

She broke away and wrapped her arms around me, holding me close. I gladly pressed myself against her, thankful for her presence. I buried my face in the crook of her neck and closed my eyes. I draped one arm over her onto her back, and I folded the other against my stomach. She nuzzled my cheek and I heard her sigh.

"G'night, Sam." she said.

"Goodnight, Rikku." I whispered, and let oblivion overtake me.

______________________________________________________

_**Not from Sam's POV**_

A wide grin played across his face as he watched it. It was coming closer to land and once it reached he would board without anyone knowing. It would be until sometime tomorrow, but he was patient. He could feel her presence there, the mark he made guiding him. His eyes shone through the black night, clouds blotted out the moon. He glanced down at the unconscious woman at his feet.

For the moment, he needed to feed.

______________________________________________________

Author's Note: Wow, I wrote this chapter a lot faster than I expected. Well, now you've had a taste of what this being is like. How powerful he can be. And that yes, he does know where Sam is. Ah, I had so much fun writing this, I almost can't wait to write the next chapter. I'm posting the third chapter of Lost in Space today as well. Now we have the beginning of a relationship between Sam and Rikku, and it will progress as the story goes. And thank-you to all who've reviewed the first chapter, I'm glad you like it.

- Thank-you for reading.


	3. the Demon

_Just thought I'd warn you, this chapter will get a little gruesome. By gruesome I mean horrific visions straight from the monster's demented head. Another way of saying it is: I can be fuckin' sick, kay'?_

_- Enjoy_

______________________________________________________

Chapter 3: the Demon

My eyes opened slowly. The room was softly lit by the early morning sun. The room was cool, but I was warm. My left arm was asleep and I flexed my fingers to revive the circulation. Suddenly I felt a strange weight on top of me.

I was confused, at first. I was on my back and when I looked down all I saw was blonde. I could feel someone's face in the crook of my neck and had to suppress a shiver. Yeah, that's a pretty sensitive area for me! I could feel someone's arms wrapped tight around me. Last night came back in a blur. I made an O with my mouth and looked down at Rikku who was, by the way, half on top of me.

Was I fucking insane?

Whatever had possessed me to do this had apparently left. A few interesting thoughts popped into my head that I hadn't thought about the night before. For instance when this was all over, meaning if we caught that bastard and got out of here alive, I would have to leave and Rikku would not be able to come with me. That would probably kill her! Hell, I wasn't even from her planet!

Another thing was that I had only just met this girl. Yeah I trusted her, who wouldn't? Point being that she didn't quite know me either. I wasn't exactly a good person. Last time I'd been involved with someone it didn't end well for me . . or them.

The most ominous thought was that if that son of a bitch really had followed me then this entire ship was fucked. He apparently didn't like me for some reason. Why, I had no idea.

I sighed, "Now what?" I grumbled in Latin. Latin was the High Command common language. Most of their facilities spoke and wrote nothing but the ancient language. I shifted, trying to get a feel on just how awake she was. She just tightened her grip on me and muttered something in her sleep.

The girl was a fucking boa constrictor.

I had to find a way to get up. I wanted to get in the shower and just think. First I had to untangle myself. Her arms were wrapped around my chest and one of my legs was caught in hers. Damn, I was like her personal teddy bear!

I tried to slowly move, hoping that if I moved slow enough she wouldn't notice and I could just slip away. I placed my hand gently on one of hers and slowly tired to move her arm. At first she twitched, but thankfully nothing else happened. After moving the hand that had been on top of me I slowly sat up and pulled my leg from in between hers.

After I successfully got out of the bed I pulled the covers back around her. She sighed and curled up in her sleep, a soft smile on her lips. Well, at least _she_ was happy.

I grabbed my clothes and quietly went into the shower. The whole "quiet" thing ended when I turned the shower on. It seemed ten times louder when I was trying to be quiet. Simply put, it was similar to changing from a babbling brook to fucking Niagara Falls. I rested my head against the wall and let the water trail down my back. Absentmindedly I reached a hand up and placed two fingers on the marks on my neck.

Why? Why did he need to do this? He was free, so what was the point of going right back to the enemy? Then again he somehow knew that it was just me. Therefore he knew that the threat was little to none. How was I different from Cassidy and Zach?

_Wait a minute . . did I really just think that? How sick am I? Would I really trade one of their lives for mine? No, of course not, they're my friends! I wouldn't wish that kind of fate on anyone. Oh wait, that's not entirely true_.

I sighed and my eyes went drifted towards the closed door. And what about Rikku?

_What about Rikku? She can't be that important, at least not to you. You just met her and learned that she's already grown a little too fond of you just a little too fast. _

I had to agree with that. It did seem a little strange that she'd gotten so attached to me that quickly. My guess was that it was just puppy love. You're young and feel the need for love, and the first interesting person that comes along suddenly becomes your so called "soul mate". I knew what it felt like.

At the same time I couldn't help but think about just how much that kind of rejection would affect her. As I had pointed out, she was young and had an air of innocence to her. Did I really have to heart to do that to her? I had been rejected before, but I hadn't been that young. I didn't know what it felt like to be so innocent and then have your heart ripped from you. With any luck she'd get over me in a day or less.

I cleaned myself and then turned the shower off. I stepped out and dried and dressed. I looked at myself in the mirror for a few minutes. I rubbed the scar leading from my right temple to my cheek. Aside from the mission that that bastard bit me on, getting that scar had been my closest near-encounter with death.

I sighed and opened the door, flicking the light off at the same time. My boots were still by the far wall so I quietly padded around the bed. I picked them up and decided not to put them on in here. I walked to the door and took a last look back at the small girl on the bed.

A tiny smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. She had practically cocooned herself in the covers while I had been in the shower. I raised an eyebrow and then quietly left the room. I put my boots on in the small lounge area before heading down the stairs. Yuna was already awake and sitting at the bar, she was drinking something while reading a book, a thin line of steam was rising slowly from the cup. She heard me coming down the stairs and smiled at me. Her two toned eyes were both beautiful and unsettling at the same time.

"Good morning, did you sleep well?" she asked.

"Yeah, better than I thought I would." I said. She nodded and returned her attention the page she was reading. I sat down and Barkeep handed me a cup of something hot. Same thing Yuna was drinking, I figured. I took a sip and was surprised to find that it was tea.

I ran my fingers through my hair and stared at the wooden counter and once again tried sorting through what was going on around me. Ooh, internal conflict, yippee!

Not.

I opened up my mental filing cabinet and selected the folder labeled "Turmoil", I sifted quickly through it but my mind kept giving me the same shit that I'd thought of earlier. My sense of reason was on its annual leave of absence. Damn! I was a Major in High Command, that didn't mean that I was a genius. It simply meant that I was someone who had a knack for stickin' around long enough just to get snuffed out by something _way_ out of my league, A.K.A., that red-eyed son of a bitch.

_Stupid little girl, can you even stop your thoughts from returning to him?_

"Are you alright?" Yuna's voice snapped me back into reality. She had good timing, I was just about to get into a verbal war with my conscience. I turned my head towards her slowly.

"Uh, yeah I'm, ya' know, fine." I stammered. I took a sip of my tea which was now warm, not hot.

Yuna pursed her lips and stared me in the eye for a moment. I immediately cleared my mind of whatever lingering thoughts there were. Out of all the things High Command taught me, I never thought I'd use that one. She sighed and returned to her book. I downed the rest of my tea, thanked Barkeep and went to the elevator. I stood alone in the small lift for a few minutes before hitting the button to go to the deck.

The elevator jerked into movement and soon enough I was sitting on top of the airship, finally alone. I sighed and hugged my legs to my chest. My eyes swept over the sea and the land we seemed to be heading towards.

As my eyes swept over the distant outline I felt something. A soft pressure on my throat, like someone squeezing, but there were no fingers. I yelped as the two marks on my neck started burning. I fell onto my beck and something flashed through my mind.

It was a dark vision. A girl's body lying prostrate on the ground, she was naked and a massive slit ran down her back. The girl twitched and her arm swung awkwardly upwards, her palm connected with the ground and she pushed, limply turning herself onto her back.

I sucked in air when I saw her front. The right side of her face was caved in and the skin on the left of the jaw was gone. A large hole had been torn in her chest and dried blood caked the dead flesh. She tried to stand but her left leg buckled. I soon saw why. The muscle and skin was missing from the knee to the waist, revealing bone.

She reached an hand towards me. Whether she was trying to kill me or was calling for help I had no idea, I was just begging for the fucking thing to go away!

Finally it did leave me. It faded just as her hand touched my face, it was like an ice cold breeze. My vision returned and I struggled to sit up, gasping the entire time. My eyes reconnected with the distant land again and I flew backwards as a sharp pain stabbed my neck like a burning knife. Pain coursed through my veins like fire.

A horrid smile filled my vision and a deep voice whispered, "I am coming for you, my love." it faded in a deep laugh that I recognized all too well. I stared at the sky as the pain ebbed. I shuddered and sat up slowly.

He really was following me.

But just how long did I have until he reached me? I had almost no way of knowing where he was. I shook my head and stood slowly. I wavered, my vision blurred and my knees buckled and slammed onto the deck. What worried me was the few seconds it took for me to feel it.

_Um . . . Ow!_

As slowly as I could I stood again and walked carefully back to the elevator. I took a moment to lean on the wall outside the elevator and took a few deep breaths.

Oh yeah, today was gonna be fucked up.

______________________________________________________

Breakfast was being served when I walked into the cabin. Rikku was awake and hyper. Paine was already sitting and eating. Yuna had put up the book and was talking with Rikku. Paine was sitting at the far end of the bar and Rikku was between the silver-haired girl and Yuna.

"Sammy!" by all that is good and holy, if she calls me that again . . . Rikku waved excitedly as I approached. I didn't have to force a smile, it was cute. I sat down beside Yuna and Barkeep handed me a plate of food. It was steaming and looked great. I took a bite . . oh yeah, it was amazing.

"You were up really early this morning." Rikku said.

"Yeah, I woke up pretty early, I guess." I scratched the back of my head nervously. Rikku looked me in the eye for a split second, they had a bright shine to them. Well, at least she's happy.

_Ahem!_

I mentally slapped myself. Why did I have to be so damned mean? I hate guilt. I took another bite of food to try and distract myself. Rikku turned to Paine and tried to get the girl to speak. She turned back to Yuna, pouting, and was cuffed on the back of the head by Paine.

"Hey!" she whined. Yuna giggled and I smiled, shaking my head and laughing to myself. Rikku stabbed her food and examined it, then the frustration left her and she was back to normal. Wow, talk about mood swings.

After breakfast we all split up. Rikku and Paine vanished, and Yuna went up to the lounge with a book. I went back to Rikku's room, there was something I'd been wanting to check. I closed the door behind me as I entered and went over to the bedroll which was still there. I reached under the pillow and pulled out the small box. I silently thanked Rikku for not making me sleep on this accursed thing.

I opened it and removed the sphere. I sat down on the bed and played it. Yeah, everything that was happening so far had been said on this sphere. Why didn't we heed the warning? Ah yes, arrogance and ignorance, two of my oldest companions.

"Well," I muttered aloud, "you're screwed." I put the sphere back into the box and slipped it back under the pillow. I headed to the door and was about to leave when it opened and Rikku and I nearly collided.

"Oh, hey Sam." she smiled, but her voice cracked. Uh-oh. "Can I talk to you for a second?" I hesitated and was pretty sure she saw it. She swallowed hard and began to sway nervously from side to side, her eyes pleading.

Fuck.

"Sure." I shrugged. _Sam, if she tries to start something and you don't stop her . . !_

I walked back into the room and leaned against a corner. Rikku closed the door and sat on her bed. She stared nervously at the floor and then up at me. I raised an eyebrow and she sucked in a breath.

"Did I do sumthin' wrong?" she asked. Oh, shit.

"No," I drawled, "what do you mean?"

"Well, last night," she brought a her fist to her mouth and bit her knuckle in concentration. I waited for her to figure out what she wanted to say, "you seemed open, I guess. And then when I woke up this morning and you were gone . . I wondered if I'd done sumthin' to upset you."

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest, "No, Rikku, you haven't done anything, it's just me . ." as if _that's_ not the corniest thing in the world to say. "What I mean, is that I'm just not sure if I should do this. I'm just a little hesitant when it comes to relationships."

"Because I'm a girl?" she said softly. I groaned and inclined my head.

"That has little to do with it, actually it has nothing to do with it." I said softly. "I've had some pretty bad experiences, lets just leave it at that."

I scratched the back of my head, she looked up at me expectantly. I wondered what I was going to say. She looked so sad right now. I moved closer to her and knelt down in front of her, taking her hands in mine.

"Rikku, it has nothing to do with you. It's just that everything is moving a little too fast. I mean, I practically just met you. And like I said, I have some bad memories about this kind of thing." her eyes were searching mine. I smiled and tried to cheer her up. "But that doesn't mean that something won't happen." I gave her hands a reassuring squeeze.

"Thanks Sam." she whispered.

"No problem." I laughed to myself. "Just give me time." I moved and she stood up. She bit her lower lip for a second then dropped to the floor and reached under her bed. She pulled out a box of tools and ran out, closing the door behind her.

I crossed my arms and sighed, watching the door. Suddenly I jerked and slammed into a wall. Burning fire wrenched at my throat and tore at my chest. I gasped and collapsed to the ground. I silently begged for this not to happen. It did anyway.

A demented figure, I could not tell the gender, walked steadily towards me. The flesh was burned passed recognition, black and red mutilation covered the body. I writhed and screwed my eyes shut, but the image was mental, nothing worked. A disgusting smile pulled at the thing's mouth, the flesh around it tearing.

Two objects were in its hands, both obscured by shadow. It lifted one hand, in it was a long, wicked knife. It gleamed as the thing approached me. Suddenly I took flesh in the vision. I had heard of this happening before and knew what happened afterwards.

The blade touched me, and I felt it. Slowly it slid it down my arm, then jammed it in, ripping downwards. I screamed, not aloud, but when I twisted I could feel myself rolling in reality. The hideous creature removed the blade and stared at the open wound. I was gasping and tried to move, but couldn't. Slowly it lifted the second object. A large spoon. I was confused at first, but as it lowered the knife back to the wound I realized with fear what it meant to do . . .

______________________________________________________

I was curled up on the floor for what seemed like forever before finally trying to stand. I was still unsteady but managed to stand. I leaned against the wall, my breathing coming in heavy gasps. By far that had to have been the worst vision I'd ever had from that son of a fuck.

What puzzled me was how the visions were occurring. He had to bite you to give you a vision. The strange poison that he injected like a serpent only lasted for thirty minutes. Once injected he could mess with you at will. He quite literally made you see what you saw. He was in total control during a vision.

I knew for a fact that neither of the visions had lasted longer than ten minutes. I walked around the room, slowly weaning myself from the wall. I left once I was walking right again.

Rikku was coming up the steps, tool box in hand. I never would've guessed she liked machines. Her face and arms were smudged with grease. She winked when she passed me. I smiled and walked down the stairs and to the elevator. I rode it back up to the deck and braved looking towards the land we were now very close to.

Nothing happened.

I sat down and hugged my legs. I sighed and laid down, letting the cool air calm me. I drew my right leg up and let my left leg lay flat. I couldn't remember a time when I was this relaxed. Even as a child back at home, there was always the threat of an invasion, then High Command was formed to prevent that.

Even so, my life had always been hectic and full of fear and danger, steeped in blood and death. I was so grateful for any moment like this. I closed my eyes and let my mind slip away and wander for a while.

After a short time I heard a giggle. I cracked an eye open and found Rikku staring down at me. She was crouched down close to me, her face appearing upside down. I raised an eyebrow and she laughed. What was it about this girl that allowed her to slip through my mental radar. I could tell when any sort of dangerous creature or person was sneaking up on me, but Rikku seemed to negate that ability.

"Feeling comfortable?" she asked. I nodded gently and closed my eye. I opened my eyes and sat up, moving slow enough to allow Rikku enough time to move. I noticed that she was clean now.

"Shower?" I asked. The younger girl nodded and swayed back and forth on her heels. She sat down beside me and I noticed that she was sitting a few feet away from me.

_Well at least she's giving me space._

"Its pretty up here." she said quietly. I silently agreed, my internal clock told me it was somewhere around eleven-thirty. The bright yellow light and the cool blue water created a fresh shine that invigorated me. I glanced over at her and watched her.

"So are you." damn, fuck, shit! Why did that damned habit always have to rear its ugly head just when . . . I sighed and rolled with it. She giggled.

"Thanks." she mewled. I shifted nervously and she scooted closer to me. Damn you, Sam! Now she thinks . . .

"You're welcome." I said, my voice soft. She laid her head on my shoulder and started humming. I absentmindedly started moving my head slowly to the sound. I was strangely calm. I hadn't noticed at first, but I seemed to be even more focused whenever she was this close to me.

That was when it hit me. Her presence, more than anything, was calming to me. Whenever I was around her like this I always seemed to be able to think clearer than usual. Not only that but I felt that familiar cool wave rush through me.

It just felt right.

_You're doing it again_. I frowned and told myself to shut up. There was nothing wrong with this. Right? I just trusted Rikku, if anything I think that I would need to be more worried about my hurting her than her hurting me!

She let out a short breath and I draped an arm over her shoulders. She moved closer, pressing her side to mine. At least she . . we . . were happy. She let out a short giggle.

"You're such a softy." she laughed.

"Is that good or bad?" I asked.

"Hmm," she bit her bottom lip, "good." we sat like that for some time. She started humming again but then stopped after she said she couldn't remember any more of the song.

Finally she said that she was hungry and stood to leave. She took two steps then turned back around. She knelt down beside me and quicker than I could think planted a soft kiss on my cheek then ran off.

I lifted a hand to my cheek and touched were her lips had been. My skin felt cold to the touch, as it normally did. I smiled and let my hand fall back to the deck.

I decided to get some food too, and went down to the cabin. Paine passed me as I walked through the tiny hall to the cabin, and I heard the elevator hiss shut. Yuna and Rikku were both in the cabin. Rikku was holding a sandwich and talking to Yuna, a few bites had already been taken out of it.

Yuna had one foot on the stairs and an arm on the handrail. Apparently Rikku had stopped her to talk just before she could escape. I sat down and Barkeep walked to me.

"Helloo mish Sam, what can I do for you?" he asked in his weird voice. I asked what food he had for lunch. I listened to the options and opted for what he called "Shoop". I prayed that he meant soup. He handed me a bowl a few minutes later and I had to stop myself from sighing in relief.

Rikku fell into her seat beside me not too long after I'd started eating. She took a huge bite from her sandwich . . and I mean a _big_ bite. I gaped at her for a moment before realizing that I'd seen her heap food onto her plate and then it just fucking disappear.

"You're a black hole." I muttered. She looked at me quizzically.

"Huh?" I blinked and returned my attention to my soup after saying, "Never mind."

She shrugged and kept on eating her sandwich. She finished three minutes before I was through eating my soup. I watched in awe as she wiped her mouth and ran off. Where the hell did all that food go?

I finished my soup and thanked Barkeep. I decided to go back up to the room and take a short nap. That is if Rikku hadn't already done so, I forgot which direction she had gone in.

I made it back to the room and took off my boots, setting them in what had become their usual spot by the wall. I moved towards the bed and started to lay down when I felt something. A kind of push, like a presence.

A strong one.

I looked around and saw nothing, but that pressure didn't fade. A deep chuckle reverberated throughout the room. My blood froze and my heart stopped. I jumped off the bed and whirled around. Two red points of light appeared, floating in the air. I took a step back and slowly a form became visible.

Eight feet tall, glowing eyes, all gray clothing, dead colored skin, and tangled, messy, blood red hair. Underneath his right eye was a strange red symbol. His lips parted and I saw the fangs. I swallowed hard, realizing that I was utterly defenseless against the demon. His arms were hanging limp at his sides and his eyes were filled with a hate I had never seen in them before.

"Hello, Samantha." he growled. He moved slowly around the room, his motions fluid and calculated. He turned his eyes from me and they searched the room. "This is a strange world." he said, almost nonchalantly.

"Stop." I hissed. He grinned and turned to me.

"Stop what?"

"Messing around. You came to kill me, so just kill me and leave!" his grin vanished.

"All in due time, my dear." he said drawled. "To kill you like this would be no fun at all." he said. His tone took on an air of malice. "No, I want you to suffer, not just die."

"Just get it over with." I growled.

"Are you not listening?" he asked. "Allow me further explain my reasoning." I blinked and he was right in front of me, just an inch from my face. "I will kill everyone on this ship." he snarled. "I will make them die slowly and painfully, and once they are all dead I will make you relive their deaths."

"Why?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

"Why _not_?!" he growled, his voice low and even more inhuman. "But you haven't heard the best part yet, Samantha. That little blonde girl," he saw the shock in my eyes, "ah yes, you two seem to have feeling for one another. You may hide it, but deep down I can feel your emotions towards her." he chuckled.

"Leave her alone. Leave them all alone." I growled. "You came for me, leave it at that!"

His eyes burned brighter and when he spoke I felt myself shudder as his voice had become horribly inhuman, "No, I will make you watch her death over and over again. I will drag her death out, make her feel pain that you could never imagine, mutilating and torturing her. And she will not receive the blessing of simply dying in the end, I will kill her the most painful way I know."

I realized what he was saying, "No . ." I stammered for something, anything to make him change his mind.

"I will tear her very life force from her body while she is living. I will shred her ties to this world as slowly as possible. And then after you watch their deaths, I will make you feel all the pain your little lover felt." he laughed.

I raised a fist and punched him in the face. His head barely moved and the punch did absolutely nothing to him. He glared at me.

"Wretched little wench!" he snarled. He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me high into the air. I struggled in his grip, trying desperately to free myself or kick him. "I will not kill you all outright. I will wait until tomorrow morning to strike. You won't know where, when, or whom I'll attack first. They will simply vanish. Fight back for all I care, _you_ won't do any damage." he pulled me closer. "But _I_ will!"

He dropped me.

I hit the floor and started coughing, clutching at my throat. I gripped the bed and pulled myself up, when I looked around he was gone. I leaned on the bed and tried to catch my breath. The door opened and Rikku walked in.

"Hey, I've been . ." she saw the position I was in and ran to me, kneeling down in front of me. She gasped and her hand went to my neck. I could already feel bruises forming where he'd grabbed me, apparently she saw them.

"Ri . . R . . Rikku . . ." I gasped. She put her finger to my lips and then turned her head to the side, her eyes never leaving my throat.

"Yunie! Paine!" she yelled. She looked into my eyes, "What happened?" as she looked into my eyes I knew she saw the fear there because her emerald eyes began to reflect the same fear. "Sam?" her thin voice wavered, eyes pleading for some kind of answer.

"Rikku . ." I started just as Yuna and Paine walked in, "there's something you need to know . . ."

______________________________________________________

Author's Note: Ah, now it gets good. The threat has been made and now Sam must reveal all, or most of it anyway. Yes, the next chapter will explain High Command and its exact purpose, Sam's home, and most importantly: the Demon. Mmm, the truth is near, dear readers, and the fun is just about to begin! And my sincerest thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter.

-Thank-you for reading.


	4. Truth of the Matter

_As you may already imagine, this chapter will be more serious. Questions, some at least, will be answered and the characters must now prepare for the next morning. I'm sorry if this chapter is a little boring, but I felt the need to explain most of what was happening._

_- Enjoy_

______________________________________________________

Chapter 4: Truth of the Matter

"Rikku . ." I started just as Yuna and Paine walked in, "there's something you need to know . . ." I stopped to take a breath.

"What happened?" Yuna gasped. She knelt down and her hand went to my throat, her fingers brushing against the bruised flesh.

"I was . . attacked."

"Well that's obvious." Paine said quietly.

"Who attacked you?" Rikku asked, fury burning in her spiral eyes.

"A demon." her eyes widened and I took another breath. "As I said . . there's something I need to . . tell you." I looked around the room. "All of you."

"Shoot." Paine said, leaning against the door frame.

I struggled to figure out how to start. These kinds of matters were difficult to handle, I needed to be as cautious as possible. I searched my mind to try and find the right words. I had to let them in carefully.

. . . Oh what the hell!

"I'm not from here." Rikku and Yuna looked confused, Paine seemed fine. "What I mean is I'm not from your planet. I'm from a very old world called Earth." Rikku gaped, but Yuna seemed angry. I sighed, it was to be expected.

"You expect me to believe . . do you think we're stupid?!" I shook my head.

"If I did . . then I wouldn't be telling you this." I reached into one of the inner pockets of my jumpsuit and pulled out a small metal square. "Computer." the square lit up blue and beeped once. Yuna jumped back, but Rikku eyed it with awe. Even Paine seemed a little unsettled by the thing. "Earth."

Another beep and a cone of soft light shot out from the top of the metal, forming a three foot holographic replica of Earth.

"Earth. This world is my home. Were I come from it is the year four-thousand one-hundred fifty. I came here along in a large ship that is now orbiting your world. Computer, show warship." the hologram changed to show a large crescent of iron, the two tips sharp. "This ship is hidden in orbit, invisible to the naked eye. We came here to find something. Something that I've been trying to kill for five years." I turned off the computer and slipped it back into my inner pocket.

Yuna looked at me, eyes wide. She'd never seen this level of technology before. "H . . how can I be sure that you're not lying."

"Depends on which part you're talking about." I smiled. "Rikku, reach under that pillow and bring me that box." she leapt up and snatched the box from under the pillow, then quickly handed it to me. Strangely enough she seemed to be taking this pretty well. I opened the box and removed the sphere, I handed it to Yuna. "Watch it." I said. I shifted, resting my back against the bed and sitting on the floor.

Yuna activated the sphere, Paine and Rikku moved closer to watch it. I had to show them. They needed to believe me, no matter how little the trust was. I told them where I was from, now I had to tell them the rest.

The sphere changed and an image formed. It showed a laboratory. Advanced computer panels and surgical instruments lined the walls. Strapped to the back of the room was the Demon itself. A tube was injected into his arm, feeding a thick liquid into him to keep him sedated. He growled and writhed, but could not free himself.

A man walked up to the Demon and took out a small vial of red liquid. A woman joined him and took the vial. She opened it and dipped a brush into it. The man began to chant and the woman painted a symbol under the creature's right eye.

The Demon twisted and roared, a red light enveloped him. Once the ritual was over the light faded. The vial was discarded and the man brought out another. Just as the woman opened it the monster roared. It was deep, and horrible. Rikku gasped and Yuna flinched.

The Demon's fingers twitched and a large wave of energy slammed into the two humans. They soared back out of view and a massive cloud filled the room. The cloud faded and the creature strained against the straps and the material snapped. It broke free of its bindings and flicked its wrist. Another shockwave hit a number of people beyond the picture, wafts of cloud floated into view. He pulled the tube out of his arm and rolled his sleeve down.

"Shit, get him!" someone yelled. Gunfire filled the room, hitting all but the Demon, who'd vanished. Screams were heard from beyond the picture. Someone ran passed the sphere and a large hand slammed into him, the claws tore him in half as he ran. Blood rained over the image and the sphere was knocked down. It hit the floor and jarred the image.

After a moment of silence it was picked up. The monster's face was directly in front of the sphere now. It grinned and spoke.

"You people are _fucking_ relentless. Maybe this will show you to not try again. I will leave you, but if you dare to follow me then I will hunt all those involved down and kill them the most painful way I can think of." he chuckled. "You will never capture me again!" he snarled.

The image vanished and the three girls stared at the sphere for a minute. Finally Yuna looked up at me, Rikku carefully placed the sphere back in the box and set it on the floor.

"What was that?" Yuna asked.

"It has a lot of names. Wraith, the Demon, but my people call it Stigma." I sighed and shifted again. "It's a long story, but now that I've started I can't stop, so I'll start from the beginning. A little more than two-thousand years ago my ancestors had started exploring space. We developed better and better technology for it, and began to use this technology to better explore our own world, since most of our space explorations had been fruitless.

"My people were exploring the bottom of an ocean. For a long time no one had been able to search this area, but now they had the technology they needed to check it. They found something. A large stone tablet. It was over twenty feet long, and ten feet thick. There was writing carved on it, and a large picture carved in the middle of the tablet. The picture showed the Earth, lightning and ice and many other elements looked poised to strike it, but in between the Earth and the elements was a huge fireball. When they checked the writing they where surprised to find that it was written in Latin, an ancient Earth language. It was quickly translated and discovered that the tablet was not even a tablet at all."

"What was it?" Rikku asked, absolutely entranced, like a child listening to a story book.

"I was like a huge box. They found how to open it and inside were hundreds of scrolls and tablets, all written in Latin. They were deciphered, and those scrolls changed the course of history of our world. These tablets and scrolls revealed parts of our history we had no idea had ever occurred. These had come from a time period that was far older than we could imagine. These scrolls allowed my people to rediscover magic. For a long time it had been dismissed as merely a myth, but these scrolls explained the use of elemental and other spells in a scientific manner.

"What was found the most amazing was an accurate star map that actually showed the locations of planets that we had no idea existed. By using these scrolls we became more advanced and more powerful. We finally decided to go to the nearest planet to Earth, when we arrived, we found something we didn't expect. This world was inhabited by beings called the Fallen. The Fallen are ruled over by leaders called Lords of the Fallen. Most worlds have a Lord on them, this one did. We later found that this planet, and all other's that had Fallen on them, were marked with a small symbol on the map. What scared my people was the fact that these beings had a way of coming to our world. The threat of invasion began."

"Invasion?" Yuna asked.

"Yeah, the Fallen could travel between worlds, almost at will, it just took a lot of energy."

"Why didn't you do that?" Rikku asked.

"No need to, we had star-ships." Rikku nodded, but still seemed confused. "A star-ship is similar to this airship, only they are a lot bigger, they can travel beyond a planet's sky, and most of ours are armed."

The girl made an O with her mouth. I still didn't think she understood it that well. I sighed and decided to continue.

"My people decided that something needed to be done to get rid of the threat of invasion. So we created a military force dedicated to one thing: The total annihilation of the Fallen. I myself am a Major in the modern military, we call it High Command. We utilized our forces and started looking for these creature's weaknesses, and we found them. We began waging outright war against the Fallen and it has been going on now for more than one-thousand years."

"So what about this guy Stigma?" Paine asked.

"That is much more recent." I paused for a moment before continuing. "Four years ago we found a world that we didn't know had any Fallen on it."

"What about the map?" Yuna asked, still skeptical.

"Well that was made thousands of years ago, by now the Fallen had moved on to more planets. This world looked dead. Covered in ruins, but we found no Fallen, although the signs that they had been there were evident. What we did find was an old, beaten up human. Well, we thought it was human. Once we found out that he was Fallen we captured him, unaware of his power."

"Stigma." Rikku said. I nodded slowly.

"He has many powers, but the first one we found out about is what caused us to call him Stigma. He switched bodies. He can spread himself like a disease. He can only inhabit one body at a time, thankfully, but he can switch as many times as he can get a hold of someone. He hid in the body of one of our soldiers and then emerged. Younger, stronger, and with all the knowledge of our people. Ever since then he's been the most dangerous Fallen we've ever encountered. His most frightening power is the ability to make you see things."

"Visions?" Paine asked.

"Yeah, his canine teeth are longer than normal and if he even pricks you it injects a venom that allows him to manipulate what you see for thirty minutes, after that the venom is useless." I pointed to my neck and Rikku leaned closer.

"He . . bit you?" she asked, voice filled with concern.

"Three years ago. It was horrible. He has the most disgusting mind I could ever imagine." I inclined my head and shut my eyes. "He's sick."

"And now he's here." Paine stated. I nodded slowly.

"We followed him here, traced his energy signal. Which is hard to do, especially with him. Even despite his warnings we followed him here to defend this planet from him. Out of all the Fallen, the Lords included, this thing is the most powerful being I have ever encountered. We managed to bind half of his powers, that was what that mark they painted on him was, but he's still strong." I looked up and stared into Yuna's eyes. "And I am going to stop him."

She glared at me, "From doing what?" she asked.

"He's threatened you all and myself. He's going to kill me for revenge and all of you just for the fun of it. I'm not going to let that happen."

"How?" Paine asked. Talk about a woman of few words.

"I have weapons. Those two cases you found with me, I need them." I said, standing slowly. Rikku helped me up. I took a few steps and nodded, I was fine.

"Follow me." Paine said. We left the room and walked to one of the others. Paine told us to wait outside and a few seconds later emerged with the cases. We brought them back into Rikku's room and laid them on the bed. "I figured they were weapons."

In between the two latches on each case was a small pad. I selected the bigger one first and entered the code. The case unlocked and I flipped the latches up, opening the case. Inside was a myriad of weaponry. Guns, knives, ammunition and more. I gripped two loops on the side and lifted, pulling the inside of the box out, revealing a second compartment underneath. A long broadsword took up the whole of this second compartment.

"These are the only weapons that can hurt him or the Fallen. The scrolls spoke of a weakness, 'White gold that burns their flesh like fire,'." Paine lifted the broadsword and unsheathed it. She ran a finger along the flat of the blade and looked at me.

"Silver." she said. I nodded.

"Many legends on Earth speak of silver as being a bane to evil, we never knew how right they were. Luckily we found silver in abundance on many of our colonized worlds." Rikku studied me.

"Colonized . . ?" she looked at me, confused. Wow, being advanced was really hard to explain.

"Uh, yeah, that means that we live on more planets than just Earth now."

"That's possible?" she asked. I nodded.

I turned my attention back to the case, "Take whatever weapon you can use, you'll need it. Silver is like poison to this bastard, one touch and he'll be screaming."

Yuna picked up two of the pistols and hooked the holsters to her belt. She also slipped four magazines into the pouch on her belt. Paine sheathed the broadsword and slung the harness over her back. Rikku picked up the two daggers and sheathed them where her old ones had been.

"And you?" Yuna asked. I moved the first case to the side and unlocked the smaller one. Inside were two swords. Thin blades, and no guards. The handles were wrapped in a soft leather. I hooked the swords on either side of my waist using small hoops of leather on the waist of the jumpsuit. I reached into the first case and grabbed three small, metallic spheres and slipped them into my pocket.

"Do you know when he'll attack?" Paine asked.

"In the morning."

"How do you . ."

"He told me." I looked up at her.

"And you believe him?" she asked, surprised.

"He always keeps his word."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. He doesn't lie. A lot of the Fallen have weird quirks like that. I imagine it irritates the fuck out of them. Now, what about the other three, er, four." damn it, I almost forgot Barkeep.

"Oh!" Yuna's eyes widened. "I forgot."

"Get them, there's two more pistols, and plenty more ammo." Paine turned to walk out the door, but looked back at me.

"Not till morning?"

"I'm sure of it." she nodded and left.

"We need somewhere that we can all be at once, or at least closer together. The bridge is too big, and the lounge is too exposed. The deck is a deathtrap." I paused and looked around me. "Or we could just stay here." I knew to do that we'd need to make some changes. I heard footsteps and turned back to the door. Paine walked in, followed by Brother, Buddy, Shinra, and Barkeep.

"I told them some of it." she said. "Mostly just the fact that we're in danger." I heard no accusation in her voice and was thankful for that.

"She said there's some kind of demon on the ship." Buddy said, shaking his head.

"Not just any demon." I said. I picked up the last two pistols and handed them to Buddy and Brother. I tossed them each another two magazines. "Point and click, you'll be able tell what he looks like, he just seems . . wrong."

"Scary." Rikku whimpered. Uh-oh.

"I told them not to question, just to listen." she glanced at Brother. "At least that was all it took for Buddy." she growled. Brother flinched and took a step back, his head facing the ground.

"Sorry, but I do have one question." Buddy said nervously. "Why don't we just stop somewhere and run? Or try to get some help?"

"Because this thing would follow us no matter where we went, and running would put even more people in danger. Also, none of your weapons can hurt this guy. I've tried using magic on him before, it does little compared to what it can do to other Fallen."

"Like I said," Paine growled, "just shut up and listen."

"Alright, we have until tomorrow morning to set up. I've decided that this room and the one next to it will be the areas to set up in. He fights erratically, so while we'll be in danger at all times starting tomorrow we won't be fighting at every second. In fact fighting will be sparse. We need to use the furniture to block off these last two room from the lounge. We need to get the chairs and couch and drag them onto the balcony."

Paine and I drug the couch while Buddy and Brother grabbed the chairs. We positioned the couch first, it was like a small wall that separated the last two rooms from the rest of the balcony. The two chairs were set side-by-side on top of the couch. Buddy and Brother were forced to climb over the makeshift wall.

All doors in the rooms were opened, preventing the Demon from surprising us that way. I planted small metal spheres like the ones in my pocket on the foot of the railing of the balcony, on the "wall", beyond the "wall", and then wirelessly linked them to my small computer.

None of this took long, we were finished in under an hour. Paine decreed that the four girls should be in Rikku's room and the guys were to stay in the one next to it. I saw a fair amount of logic in the decision. Four in each room and two constantly on guard, one outside each room.

That and it would separate us from Brother. I figured that was a driving force behind her decision. We waited, nervous conversation was started every so often to try and calm everyone down. We tried to all get some rest before it was too dark outside, before we needed guards.

I fell asleep without knowing it and woke up a number of hours later. It was dark outside, seeing as how no light shone through the windows at all, the lamp was off but a soft light drifted through the open door. I had fallen asleep sitting against the wall, I was leaning against the bed, which my swords were just under. Yuna had apparently fallen asleep on the other side of the bed the same way I had. Rikku was curled up on top of the bed. Paine was leaning against the door frame, looking slowly around.

Rikku stirred and muttered something. She lifted her head and opened her eyes, the emeralds drifted around the room and then landed on me. She was scared, and she had every right to be.

_And guess who's fault that is? If you had just listened to the warnings . . ._

"Hey." she whispered. She looked over at Paine, the stoic woman was standing with her head inclined, but I doubted she was asleep. "Where's . ." she looked over the other side of the bed and smiled. She quietly slipped off the bed and sat down beside me, her head on my shoulder and her eyes closed.

I could feel her shivering, and it wasn't from the cold. I leaned my head down, my mouth brushed her ear.

"It's gonna be alright." I whispered.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Because I've beaten this guy before, and in fewer numbers." yeah, it was the truth. That one time with Zach and Cassidy had been pretty fucked up, but the truth was the three of us had beaten him, driven him away, many times.

"I hope you're right." she said. I looked up and saw Paine watching me. I gave a silent signal that Rikku was scared and the woman nodded, turning her attention elsewhere.

"I am." I said. Rikku huddled up against me and I slipped an arm over her shoulders.

"Thank-you." she said. I looked down at her.

"Huh? What for?"

"For being here." how ironic is that? If I wasn't here she wouldn't be in this mess. She opened her eyes and looked into mine. There was innocence there, uncertainty, and fear. She buried her face in the crook of my neck and I could feel tears. Her body shuddered and she cried, making no noise in the process.

My mouth hung open. I had no idea what to do. I looked back at the door, Paine had left the frame and was somewhere outside the room. I sighed and wrapped my other arm around Rikku and pulled her into my lap. I held her and she cried, her arms around my neck. A few minutes later she slowly stopped. I held her, rocking slowly. I felt her lips brush my neck and tried not to flinch. I felt her kiss my neck softly, and her tongue brushed my skin. I sucked in a breath.

"Rikku." I breathed. She looked up into my eyes. "I . . uh . ." her eyes were still wet from crying. I swallowed and gently pressed my lips to hers. She looked shocked but slowly closed her eyes, I didn't close mine. We sat like that for a short time before she moved her lips and kissed my cheek, barely brushing it. Her lips moved to my jaw line and then slowly down my neck. I suppressed a shiver. She rested her head on my shoulder and slowly drifted to sleep.

"Thanks." she said, it was barely a whisper. Slowly her breathing turned shallow and she fell asleep, gently nuzzling me. I sighed and held her, glad she was asleep. She needed any comfort I could give her, so I guess I succeeded. I hoped that I did.

Because tomorrow was going to be hard on all of us . . especially me.

______________________________________________________

Author's Note: I wrote this a lot faster than I thought I could, and I'm sorry that it's shorter than my other chapters. Ah well, I hope you enjoyed it. Next chapter the real struggle begins. I apologize if the little amount of science fiction was weird, but that's just how the story developed to me. There will be less SciFi in chapters to come, so don't worry. And thank-you all who reviewed the last chapter.

- Thank-you for reading.


	5. Touch of the Mara

Chapter 5: Touch of the Mara

I waited, we all did. The tension was palpable, like a thick blanket that was slowly laid over us and smothered us all. Every sound would alert someone. I was the only one who didn't jump at every bump or sniff. I knew when he was coming and would not let myself get worked up over this.

Yet.

Rikku had fallen asleep in my arms and I held her close, slowly stroking her hair. To tell you the truth it helped me, it kept my mind on something other than that bloodshot fuck that was waiting for just the right moment to hit us.

The first attack would be small, just to test us. It wouldn't be till later that he decided to go at us full force. I had closed my eyes and rested my head on Rikku's. At one point I looked up and saw Paine watching me. She said nothing, and there was nothing in her eyes that unnerved me either. She just watched me for a moment before looking back out over the balcony.

Rikku squirmed in my arms and sighed. As carefully as I could, I stood, lifting her up. I laid her gently on her bed and walked to the door. Paine was leaning over the balcony, and Buddy was standing outside the other room, but not near the railing. The broadsword was still slung over her shoulder. I walked up next to her and leaned on the rail.

"Get some rest." I said. She shook her head.

"If anyone needs rest, its you." she turned to me. "You know better than any of us how to fight this monster. I'm fine, but you need to be as rested as possible." I tried to object but she cut me off and pointed back to the room. Slowly I nodded and turned, but before I moved she laid a hand on my shoulder.

"It seems like she's become really attached to you." she said quietly.

Damn it.

"Aren't you perceptive." I said, voice laced with sarcasm.

"A little." she let out a short laugh. "I'm glad she's at least happy, but what happens when this is all over?"

My mouth hung open, I looked from her to Rikku and sighed, "I really don't know. I don't want to hurt her."

"So you do care for her?"

"You could say that." I said. "And to tell you the truth I've never felt this way towards another person so quickly."

"Rikku has that effect on people." Paine said, letting go of my shoulder.

"It scares the hell out of me, even more than that bastard out there does." I paused, "Wait, you don't . . mind?"

"I could care less." she chuckled. "You should see the way she looks at you." Paine said, a soft smile on her lips. "I think she really cares about you."

I was about to say something but Paine cut me off, "I think you're more like me than anyone else on this ship. If that's true then I know that the last thing you'd want to do is hurt her."

"How do you . ."

"I'm a really good judge of character." she said. "But I think that you're just the person she needs right now. Strong, protective, and maybe even caring."

I looked her in the eyes and nodded, "Thanks." She nodded and looked back over the balcony. I went back into the room and stopped in the doorway. My eyes lingered on the girl on the bed. I walked closer and heard her whimper. I lowered my right hand and slowly stroked her hair. She shifted and suddenly didn't look so nervous.

"I'm here." I whispered. "And I'm not going anywhere."

______________________________________________________

The first rays of sunlight drifted ominously through the window panes above. My eyes lingered on the glass for a moment before I sat up from where I was seated on the floor.

I had dozed off multiple times during the night but never really fell asleep. My left hand was on the bed, Rikku had been holding it in her sleep. It wouldn't be long now.

I shifted so that I was now kneeling by the bed. Rikku looked so peaceful, happy even. And I was about to rip her back into this real life nightmare. I rested my hand on her shoulder and gently shook her. She stirred and I brushed loose strands of hair from her eyes. _I'm sorry_.

Her eyes slowly opened and she smiled softly at me, then her gaze drifted up to the rays of sunlight above. Her face changed and the light in her eyes dimmed.

"Its morning." she whispered.

"Yeah, it is." I trailed a finger down the side of her face and gave her hand and quick squeeze. "Everything will be okay. We're gonna win this." I said. "I won't let him hurt you." she looked back at me and nodded.

I let go of her hand and pulled my swords out from under the bed and quickly tied them to my waist. Paine walked quietly to me.

"How much longer?"

I shrugged, "Maybe an hour, a few minutes," I paused, "maybe a few seconds." Paine nodded and rushed out of the room. I heard her run to the next room and bang on the wall.

"Get ready!" a second later there was a loud _bang_ as someone fired a pistol round. Rikku shot up.

"Paine!" she yelled, the dark woman walked into the room.

"What happened?" I heard Yuna's say, still groggy from sleep.

"You okay?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"Yeah," she gestured over her shoulder with her thumb, "but the wall isn't"

Rikku rolled her eyes and groaned, "Brother?" Paine nodded. Rikku muttered something in her own language and slipped off the bed. She stumbled once but righted herself and picked up the two daggers and strapped them to the back of her waist. Yuna was still sitting by the bed and rubbing her eyes.

"Anything we don't know about that this guy can do?" Paine asked.

"Well, he can levitate," I paused, "and he has what we call flight." Paine furrowed her brow. "Flight is when someone, or something, can use just a small amount of energy to warp short distances. That's probably how he got aboard the airship in the first place."

"How close can he get to you?"

"Close, but not directly beside you. And he's not stupid. The instant he appeared here he'd be in ribbons, but he's gonna try from a distance first."

"To test us."

"Exactly." I said, Paine nodded and walked back to the door. I looked over and saw that Rikku was sitting on the bed staring into space. "Hey, you awake?"

Her eyes turned slowly to me and she blinked, "Oh, yeah." she bit her bottom lip and stood up. I looked down at the floor and walked to the door.

"I'm guessing that there won't be any . ." Paine was cut off by a deep chuckle that seemed to come from all directions, "warning."

"Welcome one, welcome all, the game is about to begin. Some will die for standing tall, one will die to atone for sins."

"Damn it. It not a sin to attack you, ya' mother fucker!" I yelled. A loud laugh echoed from the open area before us. "Always was full of himself."

Yuna walked up behind me, the two guns drawn, "Does he always do this?"

"Not always," I said, "but he has done this before." I motioned for Paine to move farther into the room. We both moved to behind the two sides of the door. Yuna stood behind me, Rikku behind Paine.

"Poor little humans, none know what to do." he chuckled. "Do not be afraid, the fog will clear. It will all be over soon."

"Don't count on it, you red-eyed son of a bitch!" I yelled.

"Insolent human, do you dare to challenge me?"

"Cut the crap, Stigma, and fucking show yourself!"

A deep growl shook the walls, "As you wish, my dear." my eyes widened.

"Oh, shit . ." I turned my head and my eyes locked on the figure standing not ten feet from us.

"I'm right here." he grinned. Multiple gunshots slammed into the wall, but he was gone. I turned to Yuna, her eyes were wide and her hands were shaking. I slowly drew my swords.

"Calm down, you did good." I said. I heard Paine slide the broadsword from its sheath. "Rikku and Yuna, move farther back into the room so that _that_ won't happen again." the two girls nodded and moved back, still keeping to the walls.

"That was close." Paine said.

"Too close."

"How did he know we were all at the front of the room?"

"He could feel it." I said. "He can feel each person like a presence. He doesn't even need to see us."

"Big advantage for him."

"Huge disadvantage for us." something like a small breeze hit me. "Uh-oh." another hit and then another, each time the pulse was stronger.

"What's he doing?" Paine asked.

"Shit, get into a corner and get down!" I yelled so that those in the room next to ours would hear me. The four of us backed into one of the room's corners and crouched down. The pulse was strong now, each wave pushed me a little. A minute later and I was pressing myself to the ground so that I wouldn't go flying into Yuna.

The waves began coming in erratic patterns. One long one, two short ones. One short one, two long ones, still getting stronger. It would only be a minute before he was finished, but the end was what I wasn't looking forward to.

When the seemingly last wave came it pushed us all. I quickly sheathed my sword and Paine followed my example, "Rikku, daggers up." I said. She quickly obeyed. The final blast hit us hard, Yuna was shoved into the wall and Paine and I were thrown halfway across the room.

"That didn't seem too harsh." Yuna said while Paine and I where getting up.

"That was only to stun us." I said. Suddenly all four of us were hit with a huge surge of energy and a thick cloud filled the room. "Damned shockwaves." I coughed.

The smoke cleared and I looked around. Rikku was fine, Yuna and I were against the wall and Paine . . was gone.

Fuck!

I tried to stand but collapsed. It took me another few seconds to finally get up and walk to the door. Stigma was floating in the air past the balcony and was holding Paine by the throat with his left hand, his right hand was against her chest where her heart would be.

He closed his eyes and a soft red light surrounded his hands. I was too late. Paine was hanging limp, but still alive. Stigma leaned his head close to hers and whispered something in her ear. Buddy and Brother rushed out of the room next to ours and lifted their guns, they had a clear shot at Stigma's side. The Demon moved his right hand and flicked it.

The two men where thrown back into the room by a shockwave, Stigma's hand went back to Paine's chest. Seconds later he opened his eyes and smiled at me.

"Here," he chuckled, "take her."

He threw her at me. I caught her but slammed into the wall behind me. When I looked back up Stigma was gone. Yuna stepped cautiously out of the room and saw me. She holstered her guns and helped me lift Paine and bring her into the room. We laid her close to the wall, away from the door.

"What did he do?" Yuna asked.

"If I'm correct," I said, pressing my fingers to Paine's throat, "its called the touch of the mara."

"What does that mean?"

"It's one of his more annoying abilities. He can plant a temptation in your head, or strengthen an old one. This can cause the person to change drastically, even turn against friends."

"How do we stop it?" Rikku asked, she was on all fours, looking at Paine, fear etched on her face.

"We can't, really. We just have to hope that Paine has a strong mind. He said something to her, my guess is that he planted a new temptation. That means it'll be strong."

Yuna gaped at me, "How can he do all this?" she asked.

"I have no idea. Like I said, out of all the beings I have encountered, none of them even come close to this guy. At least half of his powers are bound." I stood and crossed my arms over my chest. "If he was at his full strength we might already be dead."

"So now what do we do?" Rikku asked from the floor. I looked down at her and arched an eyebrow. She shrugged and crawled away.

"We wait." I said. "He's gonna wait until her mind has been totally consumed by whatever he planted there and then wait for her to come to him."

"So that's what will happen, if she can't fight it?" Yuna asked.

I nodded once, "She'll be lost, just like many before her."

"Has anyone ever beaten it?" Rikku asked.

"Yeah, a friend of mine, Cassidy, she fought it and won." I said. "Paine seems a lot like her, I'm sure she'll beat it . . eventually."

______________________________________________________

Close to an hour later Paine opened her eyes. I was the first one to notice. Rikku was huddled up by the bed and Yuna was sitting on the other side of Paine. When Paine sat up Yuna yelped. Brother rushed into the room.

"Everything is fine." I said before he could get too close. "Go." he stood in the doorway, confused, then slumped away. I turned my attention back to Paine who was staring intently at the floor.

"Paine?" Yuna asked. She placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and Paine flinched. "Are you alright, Paine?"

Paine turned slowly and looked Yuna in the eyes, I tensed up, "Yuna?" she asked, her voice shaky. Rikku slowly looked up at what was happening.

"Yeah, its me." Yuna said, smiling softly.

"You . . you're okay?"

"I'm fine."

Paine smiled, "Good." I was moving before Paine could react. She swung around, aiming to hit Yuna. I grabbed her arm and forced her down. I managed to pin her and held her in place, just barely pushing her hand into the small of her back. She hissed and struggled against me.

"Wha . ." Yuna gasped and jumped back.

"Yeah, that's what it does to you." I said, teeth clenched.

"Let me go!" Paine growled. "I have to go to . . to him. I can . . hear . . . I can hear him calling . . it won't stop!"

"Damn it! It shouldn't be this strong." I said. Rikku and Yuna both moved as far back as possible, horrified looks on both of their faces.

Paine managed to roll over and my grip slackened. She wrestled free and elbowed me in the stomach. She was stronger than I thought. I coughed and tried to stand, but I was too busy trying to breathe again.

Paine stood and kicked me in the stomach again. I yelped and stopped trying to move. Paine grimaced and drew the sword on her back. She lifted it and was about to cut down.

"Paine!" I heard Yuna bark. I looked up at the girl. She had the two guns trained on Paine, a tear rolled down her cheek. "Don't." she said, voice breaking up. "Please don't."

Paine let out a low growl and sheathed the sword. She slid the harness off her back and dropped it to the ground. She slowly backed away from me and then rushed out the door.

As soon as she was gone Rikku ran to me and Yuna fell to her knees, the guns clattered to the floor. Rikku laid a hand on my stomach.

"Sam?" she whimpered.

"I'll be alright, nothing's broken." I groaned, slowly sitting up. I took a deep breath and stood. I picked up the broadsword and slung it over my back, just in case.

"Are you . . ?"

"Yeah, I have to."

"Do you know where she went?"

"I'm pretty sure." I said. I turned and walked out of the room, but stopped when I heard soft footsteps behind me. "Rikku," I turned to face her, "stay here. Yuna cannot be left by herself. And besides, what just happened was pretty hard on her. You need to be here for her."

"But you . ."

"I'll be fine." I said and walked away. One of the chairs had been pulled off of our makeshift wall. As if the thing would've done anything anyway.

I climbed over the couch and hurried down the stairs and to the elevator. Once inside I hit the button for the deck and the elevator jerked to life, slowly moving upwards.

The elevator finally stopped and the doors slid open I stepped out and into the tiny corridor, drawing my two swords. I walked through the doors and the wind immediately hit me. The Celsius was still on autopilot and moving slowly.

Paine was on her knees in the middle of the deck, head tilted down. Stigma was farther away and facing forward, his back turned to me.

"Hello, Samantha." he said, his voice unnaturally clear in the wind. "You're just in time. Paine is mulling over my offer."

"And just what offer was that, Stigma?" I had to yell.

He turned to me, smiling, "Unlimited power." he said. "I cleared her head a little, so now she can think properly, but the choice is still nagging her, pushing her, pulling her." he growled.

"You said unlimited power. Fuck, that's cheesy even for you." I said, pointing a sword at him.

"Oh is it?" he looked genuinely shocked, but his face quickly retook that cocky as fuck grin. "I offered to teach her the skills of the old ways. Those great powers that exist dormant in all things. The same skills that have made me so powerful. These powers will allow her to evolve, to enter a new phase. Her spirit will be free, and she will become immortal."

"I . . I don't know." Paine said, barely audible in the din.

Stigma arched an eyebrow, "Ah, I can feel a storm of passion raging deep inside her."

"One that you put there." I said, tightening my grip on my swords.

"Hmm." he walked slowly to Paine and knelt down to her. "It is time, my love. Kneel to your aggression," his fiery eyes moved up to me, "just like I do."

"Don't listen to him, Paine. Fight it, if you don't he'll kill you, or if he really means what he says then you'll become an eternal monster," I paused, "just like him."

Stigma let out a low growl, "I can give you powers that you could never imagine, I can make you eternal. Or, I can kill you." he said, his voice becoming inhuman. "Now choose your fate." he stood and took a few steps back. "I am your destiny, and you know this."

"Resist it Paine!" I yelled. "Don't do it!"

"Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy!" he said, gesturing with his arms in the air. Paine looked up at him and his arms fell to his sides. I sheathed my swords and reached a hand into my pocket. My skin met with cool steel and I wrapped my hand around one of the spheres. I flexed my other hand and lifted it.

Stigma saw what I was doing just a second too late. I flicked my wrist and a bolt of lighting struck him, knocking him back. I pressed my thumb to a small panel on the sphere and threw it at Stigma. The lightning only stunned him, but not for long. He roared and was about to charge me when the sphere landed at his feet and rolled behind him, suddenly exploding into a cloud of gray smoke.

More like _silver_ smoke.

He let out a horrible, inhuman scream and clutched at his throat and screwed his eyes shut. He stumbled back, his deathly pale skin an irritated red. He fell to his knees, one hand on the metal deck to support him, the cloud quickly consumed him.

I reached into the second pocket of my jumpsuit and pulled out a small tube, it was close to the size of my thumb. Paine looked back at me, confusion and shock on her face and in her eyes. I ran to where she sat.

"Sam . . ?" I grabbed her and pushed the metal tip of the tube to her throat and pressed down. There was a quick _hiss_ and her eyes closed. I caught her before she fell and slipped the tube back into my pocket. I picked her up and moved as fast as I could.

I made it into the elevator and then went to the cabin. As soon as I was out of the corridor I called out and Rikku and buddy came out of the two rooms. Rikku ran down to me and Buddy stayed to watch us from the balcony.

Yuna leaned out from the doorway and cried out when she saw Paine slumped in my arms. Rikku helped me carry her up the stairs and Buddy and Yuna helped to take her into the room. They laid her on the bed and I picked the bedroll up from where it was lying in a mess by the wall. I laid it in a corner as far from the door as possible and we moved her there. Buddy left once we had moved her. Yuna sat down, her legs tucked beneath her, beside Paine.

"She's fine." I said, sitting on the bed. "She's sedated, but fine. I'm sure she'll fight off that damned touch once she's awake, she already seemed a little clearer back on the deck." I said, rubbing my eyes.

"Stigma?" Rikku asked. She was sitting on the floor near Paine, hugging her legs to her chest and looking at me.

"Oh, he's pissed." I said. "He looked like he was ready to ditch his whole torture scheme right then and there and just tear me in half where I stood." then I smiled. "But he is hurt." I pulled one of the spheres out of my pocket and held it up for her to see.

"These are like tiny grenades. Instead of fire and shrapnel they expel a cloud of crushed silver and smoke. It burns the hell out of their skin, lungs, and wherever else it hits them."

"So how long until he tries something again?" Rikku asked.

"It'll be a while. Last time I saw him he was being eaten by a silver cloud." I laughed and slipped the sphere back into my pocket. "We have time."

"How long is she going to be asleep?" Yuna asked. She was still sitting beside Paine and watching the sleeping girl.

"An hour, maybe a little more. It should give her enough time to get her thoughts straight and let her mind recover." I slipped the broadsword off and set it on the floor. "Unfortunately he may try to get into her head again, just to spite me," I paused, "and her."

"Huh?" Yuna turned to me.

"She was already fighting it up on the deck and it was making him really angry that she was resisting him so quickly. Of course he was an idiot to clear her head, even if it was just by a little."

I laid back on the bed and felt something nagging me. Something Stigma had said. He said that he had offered to, "teach her the skills of the old ways." and then that those were the same skills that had made _him_ so powerful.

That didn't make any sense. A Fallen is born with powers, no matter how weak or how strong. They never needed to do anything to make themselves stronger, their powers would just grow with them.

If he did something to get those kind os powers then what the hell was he? Most Fallen weren't even intelligent enough to learn. That was what had always made Stigma so dangerous. The fact that he _thought_ unlike so many of the Fallen.

The Lords of the Fallen themselves only had a limit to how much they could think. They were strong but not that smart. They could come up with a rudimentary strategy, maybe learn from their enemies' tactics, but nothing like what Stigma could do.

Stigma could out-think us, he could calculate movements and sometimes read a person like a book just by how they were standing. Most experts agreed that he was probably smarter than much of the human race.

"What the hell is this thing?!" I shouted. Damn it! Rikku and Yuna jumped. Buddy leaned into the room.

"You guys alright in here?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry about that." I said, sitting up. Buddy seemed unsure but still left.

"What was that about?" Rikku asked.

"Nothing, I was just thinking and got really confused about something. I'll be right back." I stood and went into the bathroom. I closed the door and turned the light on.

I looked at myself in the mirror and turned the water on. After watching it run I splashed some onto my face. The cold helped to clear my mind a little, but that nagging question was still there, along with another, absurd question that I immediately disregarded but still couldn't get out of my head.

What if Stigma isn't Fallen? But if he isn't Fallen . . then what the fuck is he?

______________________________________________________

Author's Note: Questions, questions. Oh how I love questions. Sam has just discovered something . . quite unnerving. Stigma is pissed and Paine is unstable, so what's next? You'll just have to wait to find out. Thank-you to all those who reviewed the last chapter, I hope you liked this one.

- Thank-you for reading.


	6. Course of Action

_This chapter will reveal another of Stigma's more irritating powers. Needless to say, Stigma is about to get inside someone else's head. The question is will this one recover?_

_- Enjoy_

______________________________________________________

Chapter 6: Course of Action

Everything was so blurry, so unreal. But then why did it feel so much like reality? The cold wind stung my eyes and bit my face. Slowly everything came into focus around me. I was kneeling on the deck, my knuckles pressed hard against the metal, which was freezing.

It was dark, and I could see thousands of stars in the sky. I slowly stood and had to fight to maintain my balance. I jumped when I heard thunder crash through the night, and then the flash of lightning. I could hear rain, hear it falling onto the metal but I could not see it, I could not feel it.

I looked up and gasped. The stars were dancing, moving slowly in circular patterns around each other. Some began to move in intricate patterns through the sky, tracing around the others. I heard another crash of thunder, this time loud enough to nearly deafen me, and the lightning that followed was so bright that it filled my vision with white. I couldn't see and lost my balance. I fell to the deck and lay still.

There was a jerk, like the airship had been hit by something. I could feel it spiraling but could still see nothing. The ship plummeted, still spinning but never stopped, it never hit the ground. Slowly my vision began to return.

I shut my eyes and heard another crash of thunder when I opened them. I could see, and the airship was not spinning, although I still had that sensation coursing through me.

I looked up and all the stars, not just some, were moving. They were racing through the sky, tracing out circular and more intricate shapes. As I watched I felt the sensation grow, was I really feeling the motion from above?

"Pretty, isn't it?" I heard a voice say behind me. I turned my head and saw Rikku standing by the door to the elevator. She grinned and looked up at the stars. "More like pretty scary."

"Wha . . huh?" I asked, sounding like a complete idiot.

"It a scary thought, to think that the stars themselves could turn against you." she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to stand. As I stood the feeling of spiraling grew stronger and shoved me down with so much force it hurt. I let out a low groan and looked up at Rikku, who had moved to stand next to me. She was smiling, and evil glint in her eyes. I reached up a hand, begging for help. She laughed and walked past me towards the end of the deck.

"What if the universe turned against you, Sam?" she asked innocently. "What would you do? How would you hide?" she asked expectantly.

"I . . I don't know." I said, confused.

"What if it knew what you looked like? And what if you could never change faces, constantly running and running, but never getting farther away? Constantly being hunted!" she asked, frustration creeping into her voice.

"I don't . . what are you talking about?"

"If you don't know, then why meddle in things that are none of you concern?!" she yelled, turning to me. Absolute fury burned in her emerald eyes.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, fear creeping into my voice.

"Poor little girl, lost and confused while chasing after something she has absolutely no knowledge about. Isn't that right, Samantha?" she growled.

Samantha?

"Huh?" Rikku turned back to face over the edge of the deck and suddenly let out a small cry. She clutched at her stomach and bent over, whimpering. "Ri . . Rikku?"

The girls doubled over and hit the deck. She was writhing on the metal and suddenly stopped. Slowly she rose, pushing herself up with unsteady arms, and turned to me, her head down and her hair covering her eyes. She slowly lifted her head and smiled at me.

"No . ." I whispered. Her eyes were a soft, glowing red. Her canine teeth were like fangs.

"Well, what do you think now, Samantha?" she asked. Her voice still sounded the same, but there was an edge of malice to it that sent shivers down my spine. Almost like she was bleeding, a wave of red washed down her hair and covered it completely. A hand reached up and pulled off the bandana. She shook her head and her hair changed. It was long, but became very wavy. Her tan skin faded to a sickening pallor.

"Stigma . ." I managed to gasp.

She let out a short chuckle, "How would you hide, Samantha?"

______________________________________________________

My eyes shot open and I quickly sat up. My breath was coming in short gasps and my body was shaking. I looked around and saw that Rikku was curled up by the wall, presumably asleep. Yuna was still sitting by Paine, but her head was hung down and her breathing was shallow.

How had we all fallen asleep? I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. It was just a dream, it was just a . . scratch that, it was a fucking nightmare! I shook my head and buried my face in my hands.

I had gone back to the bed after coming out of the bathroom, and yeah I had laid down but I didn't remember ever closing my eyes. Was that how tired I had been? I hadn't even remembered feeling tired.

I slowly stood and walked to where Rikku was sitting. I knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. Her eyes opened and she looked curiously up at me.

"Sam?" she asked. "Did I fall asleep?"

"I think we all did." I said. Rikku looked over at Yuna.

"You think she's alright?"

"Which one?"

"Yunie."

"I'm sure she is, this is just a little hard on her, is all." I said, rubbing the back of my neck. Rikku noticed it.

"Sumthin' wrong?" Damn it!

"Kind of." _don't say anything, you wanna scare her?_ "But it's nuthin'." I let my arm fall to my side. _Would he really take her? I thought, no, I was sure that he only possessed men, so why . . and what was all that shit about hiding?_ Damn it, you're staring!

I quickly turned away from Rikku and went to the door. Brother had switch places with Buddy, I doubted that made us any safer. I sighed and went back into the room.

Rikku had woken up Yuna and was saying something to her. I sat back down on the bed and watched Rikku whisper to the older girl.

I closed my eyes and sat still, all I could hear was Rikku whispering and the occasional voice from the next room. I used a method that High Command had taught me. I muttered a silent phrase, a three word incantation, over and over again. I used it to push outward, to feel with my mind.

It was very similar to one of Stigma's powers. I was trying to find him, or any trace of him. If I wasn't careful it could also be dangerous. Stigma could feel that I was looking for him and then push a surge of energy through to my mind, damaging or even killing me.

I had to know where he was.

The bridge was clear, and so was the deck. The engine room had a faint pulse to it, like he had been there. It let my mind drift and follow the trail, it traveled through the ship and stopped at the . .

I opened my eyes and stood up quickly. I hadn't checked the cabin, I didn't think he'd be here. I pressed myself to the wall near where Rikku was sitting. She looked up at me.

"He's here." I whispered. I drew a sword and moved quickly to the door and leaned out. At first I couldn't see him, but then he appeared on the stairs. He walked up three of the steps before looking up at me. "Brother . ." I managed.

"_**Samantha!**_" Stigma roared and a shockwave hit me, throwing me back into the room. A heard multiple other shockwaves slam into the balcony and the railing, cutting off the sound of gunfire.

I had hit the bed and my sword had flown away. I tried to draw my other sword when Stigma appeared in the doorway. Before I could blink he had his hand around my throat. He lifted me up and his grip tightened.

"Sam!" Rikku yelled. Stigma held me up so that I was between him and Rikku. I looked down at him and saw that his skin was back to its original color, only much of the skin on his face was peeling. A nasty aftereffect of the silver.

"Little bitch!" he growled, shaking me. "You will regret what you did! You interfered and you dared to attack me! How stupid can you be, you arrogant slut!" he barely flicked his wrist and I hit the wall. He grabbed me again by the throat and slammed the back of my head into the wall, making my vision blur for a moment. I saw Rikku draw her daggers and rush him.

He grabbed her arm without looking and tossed her. She hit the floor and tried to stand, hands going for the daggers. Stigma stared me in the eyes and growled. He pulled me back and slammed my whole body into the wall multiple times.

I heard a gun go off and Stigma dropped me. He hissed and turned around. I could see Yuna holding the two pistols, and black blood was leaking from Stigma's arm. He roared and dodged a second bullet. He reached Yuna and batted the guns out of her hands.

He picked her up and looked back at me with a smile. He returned his attention to Yuna and pressed his palm to her forehead. She screamed and kicked, thinking it was what he had done to Paine. Rikku slowly stood up and stumbled into the wall, a dagger was in her hand.

Stigma dropped Yuna and vanished just as Rikku was about to attack. She stood staring at the air, dumbfounded. She picked up the second dagger and sheathed them both. She ran to me and helped me into a sitting position.

"Sam? How badly are you hurt?"

"I'm . . ugh . . fine." I said. My head was throbbing and my body ached, but I would make it. I tried to stand but Rikku held me down.

"Don't push yourself." she said. I looked her in the eyes and nodded once. I pointed to Yuna. I had no idea what he had done to her, but it hadn't looked like he'd done anything. There had been no sign of a curse when he had pressed his hand to her forehead.

Rikku ran to the other girl and I watched carefully. Yuna sat up, she seemed fine, I prayed that that was the case. Rikku said something to her and she nodded and said something that I couldn't hear. I tried to move, but just fell over when I did.

"Fuck." I said as I moved from my side and onto my back. Rikku heard me and looked back. "I'm fine." I said, raising a hand and then letting it fall to the floor. Rikku came back to me and sat down beside me.

"Yuna said she's a little dizzy, other than that she's fine." I furrowed my brow, trying to remember if being dizzy was a sign of anything, but nothing came to mind.

"That's good." I said. "Because I can barely move, and Paine still isn't awake." I sighed. "At least we have two people left over here."

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop him." Rikku said, bowing her head.

"Hey, I couldn't do anything either. At least you tried." I managed to smile and closed my eyes.

"Rikku?" I heard Yuna's voice and opened my eyes. She was standing sitting next to Rikku and had a hand on her shoulder. "I need to talk to Sam for a little bit." she said. Rikku nodded and slowly walked to where Paine was laying. Yuna and I both watched her sit down by the unconscious woman and look back at us. Yuna tilted her head a little and Rikku averted her gaze.

I arched an eyebrow, "You wanted to talk to me?" I asked. Yuna nodded and then turned back to me. Something about the way she was looking at me was unnerving. There was something in her . . .

. . her eyes . . . .

"Yuna . ." I was cut off. She leaned down and her mouth met mine. Her lips parted and her tongue pushed against my lips. I reached up and gripped her shoulders. With as much strength, not much, as I could muster I shoved her off. She landed on her backside and stared at me, fear in her two-colored eyes.

"Yunie!" I heard Rikku squeak, and I heard something akin to hurt in her voice. Fuck, she'd seen it.

"Sam . . uh . . . I'm sorry I don't know what . . what came over me." she placed a hand on her forehead and took a deep breath. Her eyes traveled the room, landing on anything but me.

"Yuna." I said quickly. She nodded, but wouldn't look at me, "I know what this is, I think."

"Think?" Yuna said, a quiver in her voice.

"I don't know all of his powers, but I think I remember this one."

"What are you two talking about?" Rikku asked. She was starting to become nervous.

"Yuna, he does have one power that messes with the human psyche. It's similar to the touch of the mara. It can make you feel things that you never even thought of. It messes with your ability to control yourself, and your emotions."

"What do I do?" she said, growing increasingly unstable.

"You have to calm . ." she was shaking now, "calm down!" suddenly she looked angry.

"How can I calm down?" she spat. "All these . . different . . . they're building up inside me!" she had switched from anger to fear in the blink of an eye. She laid down and curled up on the floor. The pain in my arms having lessened I slowly pushed myself into a sitting position.

"Yuna." I said, keeping my voice calm.

"Sam, what's wrong with her?" I heard Rikku ask.

"Yuna, just close your eyes and try not to think about anything."

"I can't stop, everything just starts . . I can't control it!" I started sifting through what I knew about this curse, there had to be a way to get rid of it! I knew there was, so what the fuck was it?!

"Yunie?" I heard Rikku whimper and she moved slowly towards the other girl.

"Rikku don't!" I yelled Rikku stopped but Yuna saw her and growled.

"Why you?" she hissed. "Why hasn't he done anything to you?" she slowly stood up, but she was shaking and had to lean on the wall. "Paine and I have been cursed, Sam had been beaten, but he's barely touched you . . what makes you so fucking special!" she screamed.

Rikku shook her head and tried to back up. Yuna pushed herself off the wall and lunged at Rikku. I built up a small electrical charge in my hand and flicked my wrist. The weak bolt hit her and she dropped to the floor. She let out a low groan and twisted where she lay.

She opened her eyes and for a moment they looked clear, but then they clouded over again. I remembered.

"Rikku, move away from her." I said. I pushed myself to my feet and moved towards Yuna.

"Sam, don't . ." I held up a hand and she stopped. I made it to Yuna and dropped down beside her.

"Yuna." her eyes flashed open and she looked up at me, her gaze softening. One of her hands touched my face. I grabbed her wrist and then put my other hand on her forehead. I gathered as small an amount of energy as I could and pushed it into her. She jerked once, then twice, and then a third time.

"Wha . . what are you doing?" Rikku whimpered. She slowly backed away, towards the door. Finally I let up. Yuna stared up at me, bewildered, for a few more seconds before blinking.

"Sam . ." she looked around, "I . . my head, its clearing." she laughed and then her eyes widened. I followed her gaze, and I felt a heat rise up in me. Rikku had backed too close to the door and Stigma had surprised her. He had grabbed her by the arms and was whispering to her.

I saw one of the pistol lying on the floor not too far away. I lunged for it but a shockwave sent me and the pistol barreling into the wall. My vision swam and I couldn't move . . again.

Fuck.

I heard a gunshot and Stigma screamed. Slowly my sight returned. A river of black blood was pouring from his throat and he had let go of Rikku. The young girl had collapsed to the floor, curled into a ball. Stigma backed into the railing, desperately trying to stop the flow of blood. I reached into the pocket of my jumpsuit and weakly pulled out the small computer square. I tapped it twice and a large silver cloud of smoke erupted beneath Stigma's feet, enveloping him.

His screams grew louder and he fell over the rail. I slipped the pad back into my jumpsuit and looked around. Yuna was still on the floor, I hadn't shot him, Paine was unconscious.

"Oh shit." Buddy stepped into the room, gun in hand. "Brother, get your sorry ass over here!" he yelled. Brother came into the room and immediately went to help Yuna. Buddy helped Rikku up and she quickly explained what had happened while Brother laid Yuna on the bed.

"Sam, what the hell is goin' on?" I heard a voice say. I turned my head and saw that Paine had woken up.

"Nuthin'." I said with a small laugh. "How are you?"

"Never better." she said, she still sounded tired, and drugged. She locked eyes with me and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, "Thanks." she said. "For earlier, I mean."

"Ah." I smiled. "You're back?" I asked.

"Hell yes I'm back!" she said, she tried to sit up but fell back down and sighed. "And once I'm entirely lucid I'm gonna kick that mother fucker's sorry ass!" she grumbled. I laughed and Rikku and Buddy came over to help me into a more comfortable position.

"Painey, you're awake!" she said excitedly. Wow, she must give everyone a nickname!

"Yep, now shut up, I'm still a little . . damn, Sam how strong was that shit?" she said with an irritated grunt.

"It'll wear off." I said, my voice sounding very monotone.

"I'm fine, guys!" Yuna said, standing up from the bed. "I'm fine." she looked once at me. "Thanks." she smiled.

"Now I'm jealous." I said. "Rikku and Yuna can stand, Paine will in a few minutes and yet I can barely move!" I said.

"Well, at least the four of you are still okay, I guess." Buddy said, scratching the back of his head. He and Brother left and Yuna followed them to survey whatever damage Stigma had done to the balcony.

"Sam?" Rikku said.

"Hmm?"

"When Stigma was talking to me . ." oh yeah, I had completely forgotten about that, "he was saying that he . . that he wanted me."

"What?" I breathed.

"He said that he wanted me to be his next host, his first female host." she said, her eyes tearing up.

The dream.

I felt that same familiar heat rising in my chest again. "He said that either he could destroy me after he took my body, or that I could live longer than a normal person, not having to fear life because he would be in total control while I just watched from the inside."

I shook me head slowly, "I won't let him." I said softly. A tear rolled down her cheek and she hugged me. "I won't let him hurt you." I said.

"Sam, are you mad at me too?" she asked, her voice muffled.

"What, no! Of course not." I paused. "And neither is Yuna, she didn't mean it when she said that." I tried to hug her back, but decided against moving. She slowly let go and rubbed her eyes with her hands.

"So," Paine drawled from next to us, "what's our next course of action?" Yuna walked in as Paine said this and shrugged.

"Once again we've managed to hurt him, and now his hold over two of us is gone. And I'm sick of waiting." I grumbled.

"I agree." Paine said. "Sitting around is what got us into this shit anyway. And like Sam said, he's hurt now."

"Really hurt." Rikku said.

I nodded, "A bullet to the throat and then the silver cloud, I think we've managed to gain a foothold, that means that we're one step closer to having the upper hand."

"So we bring the fight to him?" Yuna asked.

"You know it!" Paine said, obviously irritated that Stigma had managed to get the better of her earlier.

"Let me warn you, it'll be dangerous, possibly even more so than any of or previous fi. . . encounters. We'll probably have little cover and have to be fast, because he's faster." I said. "My guess is that you three know each other's fighting styles pretty well?" they all nodded. "Well there's a problem. I know nothing about any of yours, and I only have a small idea of Rikku's. Moreover she knows just as little about my own fighting style, and you two don't have a clue about my techniques."

"So, what're you gonna do?" Paine asked.

"My guess is that you three can fight pretty well without me. Although this fight will be different from any you've been involved in before, even if he's still weakened. I'll fight only when necessary, distract him when I can." I said.

"So, it's agreed?" Paine asked.

I nodded and grinned, "Once Paine and I can move again, we're taking the fight to him, and we're gonna bring that arrogant son of a bitch down!"

______________________________________________________

Author's Note: Sorry the chapter is so short, and that it's so rushed. I just had to get this one out. The next chapter will be better (I hope!). Now the real fun is about to begin! I'm not sure how long it will take to write to next chapter, all I can say is please be patient.

- Thank-you for reading.


	7. In the Presence of Enemies 1

_Dream Theater is truly an inspiration! Allow me to apologize. I seemed to have, in my opinion, fucked up the last two chapters. I have worked as hard as I possibly could to get his one to come out better if not as good as the first three chapters. Once again, I am _very _sorry._

_- Enjoy_

Chapter 7: In the Presence of Enemies 1: Unholy Symphony

It took one of those, I don't know what to call them, potions to get me as close to my old self as I could for the time being. I had no serious injuries, but the headache was gone and my limbs didn't hurt so much. One thing in my mind was clear.

I was going to _fuck_ him up!

Paine had been able to stand just ten minutes after our initial decision, five minutes earlier they had given me another of those drinks. Twenty minutes after Paine was up, by now she had already regained much of her former composure, I was standing without assistance.

Like when we had been awaiting Stigma's first attack, there was a tension in the air. Only now it was like an electrical current. It was not the smothering, clouding blanket as before. Now it was like an adrenaline rush. He had hurt us, and we had returned the favor. He put us on the defensive with his surprise attacks, now we were about to return _that_ little favor as well.

Paine was testing with the broadsword, swinging it slowly while Yuna, Rikku and I made sure to stay as far back as possible. I couldn't move too fast, but I could still swing my swords. Right now that was all that mattered. Thirty minutes after the decision had been made we decided we were all recovered enough.

Yuna reloaded what bullets had been used from the pistols, which hadn't been that many. Rikku and Paine had all they needed. There was little else we could bring.

I looked up through the window in the room we had been stationed in for what had seemed like years. The light from outside told me that it was barely past twelve or twelve thirty. That pissed me off. It hadn't even been a whole day yet and he'd already beaten us senseless multiple times.

As previously stated: We were about to return the favor.

_Aren't you being just a little too overconfident?_ I had been about to give the order that we were heading out, but that made me stop. _Ah-ha! So I can get your attention sometimes, even if it is only on rare occasions . . ._

Ouch.

_Do you even know where he is?_ Fuck, I hate it when I do shit like that. I can make myself feel so stupid sometimes.

"Sam, you ready?" Paine asked. She gave the sword one last swing before bringing it back and sliding it into the sheath in a single, fluid motion. Damn!

"Yeah, just give me a minute." I said.

"For what?" Paine asked. I could hear the impatience in her voice. I sat down on the edge of the bed and quickly muttered the incantation. Instantly I could feel my mind reaching out through the ship, searching blindly for the Demon. I felt something on the bridge but it was just a faint trace of energy, so he had been there.

I pressed upward. The engine room was completely empty. I mentally slapped myself and remembered the near fatal flaw of the last time I did this and slowly searched the cabin. Relieved at finding nothing I cautiously pushed upwards and onto the deck. Before I did I had to mentally prepare myself. The deck being such an open area I would only have a split second to feel it before my mind pushed up and into the sky before breaking the connection.

I took and quick breath and let my mind feel the deck. Just before the incredible, momentary soaring sensation I felt something there, a solid form and a strong energy presence. I smiled and opened my eyes.

"Gotcha."

"Um?" Rikku bit her lower lip. Yuna tilted her head and Paine arched an eyebrow. Oh, right.

"I know where he is." I stood up and walked to the door. I rested my right hand on the hilt of one of my swords and turned back to them. "He's on the deck, and my guess is that the minute we touch the stairs he'll know we're coming."

"Won't he run?" Rikku asked, tilting her head.

"No, he's too arrogant for that. Not only did we hurt him physically, but we hurt him mentally. He's angry, hurt, and he won't run. All that'd do is just make him look cowardly."

"What about him attacking us?" Paine asked, she placed a hand on her hip and I shrugged.

"There's always that." I said. "But my guess is that he'll wait on the deck. The cabin is a tight space for him, he'll want to fight us where there's room to maneuver."

"Like you said, he's fast." Yuna said with a nod.

"So, are you all ready?" I asked. Yuna and Paine nodded. Rikku started jumping up and down. Well, at least she still has energy. "Rikku."

"Yeah?"

"Save the energy," she stopped jumping, "you're gonna need it." she gave a quick nod and we headed out the door. Buddy was standing in the door frame of the next room. I stopped before I passed him, "Cover us while we go down, just in case."

"Right." he walked to the balcony and raised the pistol. "Be careful."

"It's a little late for that, but thanks." I said. We jumped over the couch and went quickly down the stairs. As we neared the sliding doors I stopped. "Yuna, draw you pistols."

"Why?"

"Just in case that idiot decided to corner us in that tiny hall." I whispered, as if it would help. Yuna nodded and quickly pulled the two guns from their holsters. Paine and I had our hands on our sword handles and Rikku had the daggers out. Paine and I moved along the walls, quickly heading for the door. I moved just enough in front of the door for it to open and then jumped back.

Yuna held up the pistols in anticipation, but nothing happened. "Clear?" I asked. She holstered the guns and nodded. Paine drew her sword and went into the hall first, thinking the same thing as me. She approached the elevator and paused.

She moved forward slowly and the elevator opened. Instinctively she pressed herself to the wall but sheathed her sword and walked into the elevator.

"It's fine." she muttered. Yuna, Rikku and I quickly joined her and we hit the button for the deck. If I had ever thought that the elevator was slow, it seemed a whole lot slower now. Rikku actually started bouncing up and down in the elevator. The same thought in mind, Paine and I grabbed her shoulders and held her still.

She was still pouting when the elevator stopped.

Yuna went first, guns drawn. Paine followed her, Rikku close behind. I went last, my hands on the hilts of my swords. I was gripping the leather straps so hard that my knuckles were white. Rikku had her hands on her daggers and Paine was resting her hand on her sword. I wondered how she could be so calm.

"Yuna." she turned and looked at me. I pushed forward ahead of them. "I'll go first." I said, my eyes on the sliding doors. I didn't draw my swords yet. I took a few cautious steps forward and felt a bead of sweat trickle down my forehead.

I finally just decided to get it over with and took the last few steps. The doors hissed open and I flinched. Stigma was standing in the middle of the deck. He was facing us and looked none too happy. I moved quickly out of the hall, followed by Yuna, Rikku and Paine.

We spread out, all of us had drawn out weapons, "Wow," Paine said, "we really _did_ piss him off."

His eyes landed on her, "In a manner of speaking." he said quietly. "You have dared to do what few could." he said, his anger rising like magma through a volcano. "And I have to commend you. You are very brave, and at the same time so very stupid."

"Cliche!" I said.

"As it is, Samantha." he said, his eyes now on me. "But at the same time it's all too true."

"I have to disagree, Stigma." I chuckled. "You're the idiot here." Paine let out a short laugh. "Not only have I and others beaten you, but you still refuse to stop trying to kill us. Even now we've injured you, recovered from your curses, there's not much left you can do."

"Yeah, give it up, Stiggy!" Rikku yelled. Hah! Take that you son of a bitch! Now you have an annoying nickname!

"Come again?" he growled.

"You heard the girl . . Stiggy." I said, pointing a sword at him. He let out low growl, it resembled something you'd hear from a lion or tiger. A wide smile played across my lips.

_Over-fuckin'-confident!_

"Move!" I yelled. The four of us split up and skirted out of the way of a shockwave. The invisible pulse hit the sliding doors with a loud _thud_.

"That thud could've been us!" I heard Rikku squeak. Stigma turned and lunged at her and Paine. Paine had her sword out and sliced a wide arc through the air. Stigma stopped short and danced back. The two girls split up to avoid another shockwave.

Yuna let loose with her pistols. The rain of silver embedded itself into Stigma's back. He jumped over the spray and came at her, bringing his hand down like a lion would attack with its claws. Yuna and I both moved our weapons to attack him.

Stigma vanished and reappeared somewhere near Rikku and Paine. Paine distracted him with a swing and Rikku ducked behind him with her daggers. She made to stab him but he vanished. I swung around when I felt his presence.

He pushed off with his feet, dodging the sword, and landed on his hands a short distance away. He turned on his hands to face me and then fell sideways. He rolled and landed in a crouch. Yuna turned to fire but we both moved when a he sent a shockwave at us.

"Damn it all!" I yelled, twisting away from another blast. Yuna took the chance and fired again. Five bullets entered his chest and he reeled back. He fell and rolled out of the way when I brought my two swords down where he had been laying.

"Whatever happened to just distracting him?" Yuna asked, I was surprised to find that she was smiling. Her eyes seemed much brighter out in the sunlight and they were glowing with a kind of confidence.

"Yeah, I took that out back and shot it." I said. "Right in the fucking head." I watched as Paine and Rikku tried to corner him again. Rikku's golden hair was glowing brightly in the sun, and her skin was glistening from a thin layer of sweat.

I had just realized how hot it was out there.

Stigma ducked under one of Paine's swings and grabbed Rikku when she came at him. He swung her into Paine, knocking them both to the ground in a tangled mess. Yuna lifted her guns now that she had a clear shot and pulled the triggers.

Stigma was only hit by two bullets before he reappeared in front of us and hit us with a shockwave. I managed to keep a hold of my swords but Yuna's guns slipped out of her hands. Stigma lunged for Yuna but came too close to me. I lifted a sword and it entered his side. He doubled over and let out a horrific roar.

"Oh, shit!" Paine yelled. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her stand up from where she and Rikku had been knocked down. She picked up her sword and ran towards us. Stigma pushed the deck with his feet and fell off the tip of my sword. Black liquid flowed from the wound and soaked his gray clothing.

He landed not too far from where Yuna was laying against the deck. Paine reached us and brought the sword up, poised the strike down with it, the blade was positioned to go straight through his throat and sever his head.

Just as she brought the blade down Stigma held his arm towards her, fingers splayed out. Multiple tiny bolts of lightning shot from his fingertips and struck Paine in the chest. She jerked once and fell backwards onto the deck, the sword slid away.

"Wha . . ?" I gasped. He had never done anything like that before. I had never seen Stigma do that before. Come to think of it, I had never seen any Fallen use an element before in my life. I started to push myself up.

Rikku had recovered and rushed Stigma, at the same time she let out a battle cry. Under normal circumstances it would have been hilarious, but this was wasn't under normal circumstances. It did seem to have the desired effect. He was pushing himself up and paused just long enough in confusion to allow one of Rikku's daggers to find purchase in his shoulder.

He grunted and grabbed her by the throat. By now I was standing and Yuna was trying to. I tackled him and he dropped Rikku. He stumbled but his fist connected with my stomach and when I was bent over he brought his leg up and brought it down on my back, sending me to the hot metal deck. He reached up and quickly pulled the dagger from his shoulder. His teeth were clenched from the silver but he made no noise.

One of my swords skidded away, but my right hand had its sword in a death grip. Stigma lifted his foot to kick me, or step on me, when a bullet hit him in the chest. The Demon stumbled back and released a shockwave. Yuna apparently dodged because she started firing again. Stigma simply vanished.

I pushed myself up, the red metal burned my hand when my bare skin made contact. Stigma was standing someways down the deck, covered in his own blood.

Paine was slowly getting up, the skin on her stomach was burned a little from the lightning. Rikku and Yuna were both fine. Somehow Paine and I always seemed to take the brunt of the attacks.

I picked up my other sword and watched the Demon. He was standing completely still. With his head bowed he looked a little more human. His arms were hanging at his sides and his hands were balled into fists. He was shaking too. He was so different from whenever I fought him. He was no longer the overconfident, totally in control, infinitely powerful being that he had always seemed to be. To me, that said a lot.

To me, that said victory. _You just had to go there, didn't you?_ Wait a minute, what?

"You . . disgusting . . . primitive . . weak . . . stupid little primates!" he snarled. "Look what you have done to me!" he lifted his head and roared at us. "I have been scarred! Wounded! I am bleeding! How?!" his voice had become inhuman, but this time it scared me. This time it was different. It had become far too inhuman, it was almost as if he had lost all remote traces of his human nature.

"Sam?" I heard Rikku squeak from where she was hiding behind Yuna and Paine.

"Is it safe to assume that he's never done this before?" Paine asked.

"Yeah." I said, but it was barely audible, I had to repeat myself for Paine to hear me.

"I have been beaten, broken, scorned by the universe itself . ."

"That's not hard to believe." I said. "Something always told me that the other Fallen didn't exactly like you."

"_Other_ Fallen?" he growled. "I am not like the _other_ Fallen!" he spat. "I am the Abandoned One! The Ancient One!" he lifted his head and I could see his eyes were glowing even brighter. Thunder shook the ship and a bolt of lighting split the sky.

"Whoa, what the fuck!?" Paine yelled. Massive black clouds rolled slowly in from nowhere.

"I am the Stigma! The Conjoined One! He Who Was Cast Down! The Scorned! The Scourge! The Cursed One!"

"Talk about an identity crisis." Yuna breathed, eyeing the clouds with a mixture of fear and awe. "Has he ever done _this_ before?"

I shook my head slowly, just as awed, "No, and even if he could, he shouldn't be able to. Not while he's bound."

"Bound!" Stigma shouted. "There is so much more to me that you don't know about. I am no simple Fallen. I am no Lord of the Fallen." he let out a deep chuckle. "Samantha . ." he took a single step closer to us, "I _am _the Fallen!"

Another roll of thunder rattled the Celsius and we stumbled, quickly readying ourselves. He laughed and multiple bolts of lightning cut down from the black above. Suddenly Stigma was out of focus. Multiple images of himself stretched erratically from him in all directions, blinking in and out of existence.

His hands and feet started glowing. Like something from a cartoon he rushed us in a blur, he jumped and spun in midair, bringing his right foot down towards me. I dodged and his foot connected with the deck, an explosion of lightning erupted from where his kick had landed.

He swung the back of his right hand at me, just barely missing. As it passed I saw that tongues of fire were reaching greedily out towards me. He pushed off his right foot and his left foot came at me in a wide arc. His foot hit my chest and a giant surge of energy filled me, followed by a horrible burning sensation, almost like I was being burned by fire.

I hit the deck and my vision was white, all I heard was a loud ringing. I don't know how long it took, but finally my vision cleared and my hearing returned. I looked up and saw Stigma was attacking the other three .

Stigma was dancing wildly through the air. The three girls couldn't make a single offensive or defensive move. They had to jump, duck, and roll out of the way of a myriad of attacks. All the moves blended together, Stigma never paused. Every failed attack turned into another just as soon as he missed. Both his fists were on fire and his feet were wrapped in electricity.

My limbs were tingling and felt like jelly. My swords were just mere feet away from me. The front of my jumpsuit was blackened and burnt. I had to do something, but I still couldn't move. I watched as the massive storm clouds slowly connected, forming a single, dark mass.

Stigma broke away from the assault by leaping over the three girls and flipping in midair. He landed, his knees not even bending when he touched down at the end of the deck.

"You four," he said, he seemed to be speaking with two voices now, both joining together to become a deep, booming voice, "will be the first in thousands of years to witness one of my most feared powers." he grinned and the red in his eyes bled to fill the whole of both sockets. He turned his head to face me. "The ancient people of your Earth, and even those Fallen old enough to have ever seen it, call it the Unholy Symphony!"

The sky rumbled and lightning rushed down to strike the deck of the Celsius. One bolt at a time they formed a circle of blackened metal around him. Rain fell slowly from the dark mass above, but only on Stigma. More lighting struck, each time the bolts were brighter and the impacts were stronger until they left large circles of melted metal where they struck.

There was a brilliant flash of white and Stigma rose slowly into the air. "Binding me may limit my power, but I still have enough to eradicate you worthless humans!" he roared.

One hand rose to the sky and the other was stretched out towards the three girls. Paine was the one to get them to move. Just in time, too. A massive bolt of lighting hit Stigma's raised arm and traveled down and out the second, hitting the deck and sending up and explosion of lighting.

I was quickly regaining feeling in my limbs and tried to push myself up. The rainwater had run down to me and was soaking my jumpsuit. I slowly pushed myself up and picked up my swords, quickly sheathing them. I was still on my knees when the three girls reached me and helped me up.

"Do you hear that?" I whispered. The other three girls started yelling something but I drowned them out. Barely a breath on the wind, I could hear a voice. It was singing.

No, not just one.

I heard a whole symphony of voices singing. The words were being sung like a choir, the words both in Latin and English. Behind the singing I could hear a ghostly sound being voiced to the singing. A haunting choir, and the thunder was rolling in erratically in short and long bursts to fit the singing. Every so often a lightning bolt would strike, only it did at the same part of the song every time.

"Of course," I whispered, "the Unholy Symphony." I said. Some of the voices were human, and others weren't.

"What are you talking about?!" Paine yelled. Her face was a mere inch from mine. The rain had spread and enveloped all four of us, quickly soaking us.

I looked up and saw that Stigma was floating in the air, his face tilted up to the storm, arms raised. Lightning struck him several times, and every time it did a faint aura around him grew brighter.

"He's gathering his power." I said. The red symbol under his eye was glowing, desperately fighting this increase of power, but to no avail. Paine searched my eyes for some kind of explanation before turning around and seeing what I meant.

"Oh . . shit!" she said. "We need to move . . now!" they headed for the elevator, but I found that I couldn't move. Something was rooting me to this spot. Paine looked back and saw me. She let out a low growl and ran back to me. "Sam, I don't know what he's done to you, but I'm not about to regret doing this!"

I wondered what she meant. I moved my eyes, the only thing I could move, and watched as she lifted her fist right before decking me. I heard Rikku let out a cry when I was hit. I shut my eyes before she hit me. I felt myself crumple and Paine picked me up. I felt some kind of tug, like a leash had been tied around my neck.

The farther I went from that spot the tighter it became. Suddenly that leash did a lot more than just strangle me. I felt a sharp pain in my throat, tearing away at me. My eyes shot open and I screamed. What the hell had he done to me? It felt eerily reminiscent to when the two bite marks on my neck . . .

Of course! So far I was the only person here he'd bitten. Somehow being this close allowed him to gain some kind of mental control over me. Paine looked down at me, worry in her crimson eyes as I writhed and screamed.

"Samantha . ." the voice was barely a whisper, and as I heard it time seemed to grow sluggish. None of the others seemed to hear it, only me. "Why are you running?"

"I'm not." I spoke with perfectly clarity, but my mouth didn't move.

"Then come back . . come back to me . . ."

" . . No . . ."

"You are marked, you are mine! Return to me at once, wench!"

"Fuck you."

I heard a deep roar and suddenly I was back. The pain was ebbing and I could move again. "Paine!" she stopped and looked down at me.

"Sam . ."

"Put me down, please." I grumbled. She hesitated but set me on my feet. "Thanks." I stepped around her and walked back out onto the deck. She had been just inside the small hall leading to the elevator.

"Sam!" Paine called after. "Don't make me hit you again."

"You wouldn't dare." I said. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and stood in the center of the deck. "Hey! Dick-face!" Stigma's eyes had been closed but they now shot open. A funnel of black cloud had surrounded his legs and waist. Black lines had traced up his neck, face, and hands, revealing his veins.

"Hmm, so you have chosen to return?" he asked, a grin on his lips, and a sick trace of victory in his voice. The same kind that had been in mine earlier, right before he turned the tides on us.

"Yes and no." I said. I moved my hands and folded them behind my back. Stigma arched and eyebrow, his grin faded. "I wanted to give you something." I let my hands fall to my side and then quickly reared back and then threw the objects in my right hand.

Stigma raised and arm and lightning struck out and hit the two spheres, causing them to erupt into silver smoke. Stigma growled impatiently and a strong breeze blew the smoke away.

"Fuck." I turned and ran for the elevator. Paine didn't hesitate in doing the same. I looked back and saw Stigma raise his arm like before, only this time a wave of fire erupted from his fingertips and quickly gained on us. We just barely made it through the doors. Before they closed a few tongues of fire slipped through and hit my back.

Even with my clothes wet, the fire somehow caught and I dropped to the floor. I rolled, trying to put out the hungry tongues of fire. Paine gabbed me and started beating out the flames with something. After they were out she helped me up.

She had removed her leather wrap. It was pretty much unharmed, but the flames did scar the leather a little. She put it back on as we entered the elevator.

It took even longer, it seemed, to go down. When the doors did open we raced through the hall. The doors slid open and Stigma appeared in the middle of the room.

"Shit!" I jumped to the side. We split up like we had the first time. Yuna with me, Rikku with Paine.

It didn't work so well.

Stigma raised both arms, one pointed at each duo. Flames exploded towards Paine and Rikku, which they managed to dodge, but the fire did manage to ignite the floor. Yuna and I just barely escaped a barrage of lightning which exploded into sparks upon contact with the floor. I had dived out of harm's way and drew my swords as I rolled onto my feet.

Stigma faced me, but his attention was averted when Paine lunged at him. He jumped back and turned to face me, but I had anticipated this. When he swung around, still moving towards me, I raised both my blades parallel to each other and the Demon impaled himself on them.

As soon as they made contact I drove them in up to the hilt with a satisfying roar of my own. Stigma gaped at the blades in his chest. A trickle of black blood dripped from his mouth and down his chin, joining the many other bloodstains. Slowly two dark circles formed in the fabric around my swords.

He looked up at me, eyes wide. They were burning with a mixture of fury, pain, and confusion. His arms slowly rose up towards me, both shaking violently. Before he could touch me Rikku buried her daggers in Stigma's shoulders.

"Ah . . ugh . . . you . ." he tried to talk, but more blood poured down his chin.

"Die you inhuman son of a fucking _bitch_!" I hissed, my voice dripping with hate. I knew that my eyes were filled with an unparalleled cold. My heart was beating rapidly.

I could hear a gurgling sound from deep within his throat. At first I thought he was choking on his blood, but then realized that that would be impossible for him.

He was laughing.

My eyes slowly widened and I shook my head. "No . ." I whispered. "_NO!_" his laughter grew and his lips parted in a small, knowing smile. His lips moved a little, but just barely. He was struggling to talk. I leaned closer, trying to hear what he was saying.

"The . . symphony . . has . . . j . . just . . . begun." he said. He started laughing again and suddenly he vanished. I stared at the empty space for a minute, maybe more. We all did.

"No . ." I said, my voice quivering. "That's not possible. I've never wounded him that badly before! He should have died!" I yelled. I dropped my swords and fell to my knees.

"Sam?" Rikku said. She knelt down in front of me. "We can beat him, we just proved that we can."

I slowly shook my head, "No, he's growing in power. He's getting stronger every second." I felt a tremble run through the Celsius and I realized what he was really trying to do."

"Guys." Paine walked over to us, she was holding a fire extinguisher in her hand and the fire that Stigma had created was out. "Did any of you feel that?" she asked.

Everyone but me looked up at the balcony when Brother started screaming incoherently. "Um, can anyone tell me why it's so dark outside?" I heard Buddy ask.

"He's not just going to kill us." I said.

"What?" Yuna asked. She sat down beside me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "What do you mean he's not going to kill us?"

"No, he is going to kill us, believe you me." I chuckled nervously. "That's not all he's gonna do. That bastard is gonna destroy the whole, fuckin' airship." as if to prove my point the airship shook. Bottles in the bar crashed to the floor and Brother's screams grew even louder.

"Are you fucking serious?!" Paine yelled.

I nodded slowly, "He's gonna use that storm to destroy the Celsius." I looked up and my ice colored eyes met Rikku's spiral eyes. It tried to say how sorry I was in that look, and she must've seen it.

"It's not you're fault." she whispered.

"Sam, do you know how to stop this, what did he call it, Unholy Symphony thing?" Paine asked. I looked up at her.

"You heard him yourself. This is the first time in thousands of years he's ever used this." I said. I looked at Yuna and then back at Rikku. "I'm sorry, I don't know how." I buried my face in my hands as the ship shook again. "I'm so sorry!"

______________________________________________________

Author's Note: I really hope I wrote this better than the last two chapters. If I did, then I guess it proves just how inspirational Dream Theater can be to me! Well, it seems like there's a tad bit of trouble on the Celsius! I wrote this a lot faster than I thought I could . . ah well. Once again, I apologize for the hurriedness of the previous two chapters. I'll have the next chapter out as soon as I can. (I am also posting Chapter 5 of Lost in Space today.)

- Thank-you for reading.


	8. In the Presence of Enemies 2

Chapter 8: In the Presence of Enemies 2: Wasteland

"I'm so sorry!" I repeated again, feeling warm tears run down my cheeks. I was still kneeling on the ground, the dark clouds created by Stigma slowly enveloping us as he gained more and more power.

I felt a soft touch on my shoulder and looked up. Spiral eyes met my gaze. She smiled sweetly, reassuringly. For a moment I almost thanked her, I almost smiled . .

_No! How dare you! This is your own fucking fault stupid! You led that bastard here and now he's gonna kill everyone! You failed . . miserably. _

I was right . . it was all my fault. I had dug not only my grave, but theirs as well. I was . . . wait, that voice . . it had sounded different.

"Sam . ." Rikku whispered, drawing my attention back to her. I searched the emeralds, finding fear and sadness, but no damnation. She didn't blame me, she really didn't.

"How?" I whispered back. She furrowed her brow. "How can you not blame . . this is my fault, my doing!"

She shook her head and placed a finger on my lips, "You never meant for this to happen, and you tried to save us, all of us. And I'm grateful that you at least tried . . ."

_ . . . at least tried . . ._

I felt a heat rise up inside me, building slowly. I tried . . that's all.

"Rikku's right, at least you tried and didn't just abandon us." Yuna said. "You fought to save us, not really caring about yourself . . ." she trailed off.

"Yeah, don't be so hard on yourself. None of could do anything to this guy." Paine leaned against the wall as the ship shuddered for the umpteenth time, she folded her arms across her chest. "We knocked this guy down and he just came back even more powerful."

_They're just being nice . . they all blame you and you know it!_

That voice . . .

"There has to be something . . something that I could . . ."

"Don't push yourself . . you've done enough." Rikku said, an extra meaning in her eyes.

"No . . I haven't." I said, trying to stand. The ship shook again, more violently this time. I wasn't prepared and fell back down and landed on my face. Paine stumbled but managed to keep standing.

Resilient to the end.

. . . _to the end_ . . .

This was really the end, not just for them, but for me. I hadn't thought of that, and I knew it was selfish. But when you realize that you're about to die, it does something to you. I felt the fire burn harder, reaching higher and clawing at my very soul. A new found sense of resistance and resilience came over me, filling me, I sat back up.

_Why what's the point, there's nothing you can do!_

Why did that seem . . .

Rikku leaned closer to me, just barely, "I want . . to thank you." she breathed. It was so quiet, and it hit me so hard. I had barely known this girl for a few days and already it seemed like she had touched me in a way that nobody else had.

And now . . looking at her . . I could see the effects of what this ordeal had done to her. She had been so energetic, so full of life . . !

_A life that you cut short!_

Optimistic, colorful, happy!

_You've destroyed it!_

So loving and caring, so innocent.

_You stole that away!_

And she had loved me and I . . I . .

_You gave nothing back, you even tried to block her out!_

I loved her too. Underneath it all I still cared for her. I still loved her and was just too afraid to show it. And now . . at the end I realized it.

_How . . very . . ironic . . ._

When it was too late. If only I had more time . . if only there was something that I could . .

_Please, give up this hopeless crusade, just accept it . . this is the end. Embrace it!_

I just couldn't, I wouldn't. I wasn't about to lay down and die willingly.

_You still want to continue . . how stupid can you get?_

Why did that voice seem so . . cruel? No, what was it that kept drawing me back to it . . ?

_You're just trying to distract yourself!_

I looked around me. Rikku was watching me, her spiral eyes watching the person that she, for some reason, had feelings for. Yuna was sitting in the corner, hugging her legs to her chest and leaning her head on her knees. Paine was still leaning on the wall, her head was inclined and her eyes were closed. All of them seemed to be silently accepting what was happening.

And I was still trying to fight it.

_Pathetic, isn't it?_

Me, the person who was trained to realize and accept that death would be a constant companion in my travels and fights, couldn't accept it.

They were so strong . . .

_You've killed them ALL!_

NO!

_Yes, you are their killer!_

There! That time I heard it, the underlying tone, that air of malice. He was in my head, talking to me. Using my confusion as a weapon to destroy whatever fight I had left in me . . .

He was in my head.

_Ahh, to bad. It seemed to take you a longer time to find me though . ._

I mentally roared for him to get the _fuck_ out of my mind. After a minute or so I didn't hear anything, so I guessed he was gone.

Then I remembered something. Earlier when Paine had to carry me to the elevator, when he was in my head it seemed to completely distract him from us, we had been able to get away.

"That's it . ." I breathed. Rikku had had her eyes closed and they snapped open at my voice. Paine seemed to catch what I had said as well.

"Huh?" Rikku asked.

"That's . . I think we," I looked up and into her eyes, "we have a chance."

"Really?" Paine asked, disbelief in her voice.

"Yes, I . ." I paused and looked up towards the room we had been in earlier. I stood and ran for the stairs. The ship shook and I hit the hand rail. I righted myself and dashed up the stairs three steps at a time. I reached the top and vaulted over the couch.

I almost missed the door but managed to slow fast enough to actually make it inside. I found one of the cases that had been thrown to the side of the room and opened it. Inside were seven tiny metal spheres.

I picked one up and rolled it around in my hand, a thought in my mind becoming more and more like a plan.

Paine, Yuna and Rikku rushed into the room. They stood in silence as I sat staring at the tiny sphere. Finally I turned around and looked them each once in the eyes. I raised and eyebrow and a smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.

"Plan?" Paine asked, folding her arms over her chest again. I nodded.

"Yeah. And it's pretty simple."

"Oh no." Paine drawled, rolling her eyes. I laughed once and picked up the other six spheres. I stood and walked over to them. I gave Yuna, Rikku, and Paine two each. I held up the last one.

"On the top of each is a small red circle. If you press that down, you have five seconds until it releases the silver powder inside."

"Um, you tried using two of these earlier, remember?" Paine asked. "Sparky shot them down."

"Well, I just realized something." I said. "Earlier, after you punched me, Stigma started talking to me in my head. And that seemed to distract him, and then it seemed to really tick him off when I made him break the connection. So, I have a plan."

"Let me guess." Paine said. "This is where the not-so-easy part comes into play?"

"Pretty much." I nodded, smiling. "I'm going to go up there . ."

"What?!" Rikku yelled. We all three looked at her, eyes wide. "Sam, please . . he'll kill you." she said.

"I'll be fine. I'm going to challenge him. I'm going to force him to get into my head and try to brainwash me, which is kind of what he wants now. He won't be able to decline the challenge. Five minutes after I go up there I want you three to follow. Press the buttons on the grenades, count to two, and throw them up into the clouds as close to him as possible."

"Why?" Yuna asked.

"If I'm right, the smoke should mix with the rain and carry the silver down and onto him. He'll be hit by torrents of silver-filled water!"

"There are a lot of holes in that plan." Paine said.

I shrugged, "It's either that or we all sit around and wait for him to kill us." Paine's eyes lit up.

"Hell no!" she said, her crimson eyes burning. "We'll go with you're idea and just pray that it works."

"Well then, I'm gonna go ahead and go up to the deck. No need to keep red-eye waiting." I laughed nervously and quickly went back down the stairs. I went through the first door and stopped when I heard it open behind me. I turned around and was caught in a hug by Rikku, her lips were pressed forcefully against mine. After a few seconds she broke the kiss and looked me in the eyes, I watched as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"Be careful." she said. As she started to let go I pulled her back into a second kiss and watched her eyed widen. Yeah, I was kinda shocked myself. I broke away and nodded. She removed her arms and I turned and ran into the elevator. The doors hissed shut and I hit the button that would take me to the deck.

I checked my pockets absentmindedly, my fingers brushing the cool metal sphere. I removed my hand and took a deep breath as the elevator jerked to a halt.

Immediately the thunder hit me. It was loud and seemed to shake the metal floor of the hall. I walked slowly to the door and it slid open. The rain and wind slapped me in the face. Both were freezing cold. There was barely any light. Most of it came from the short tendrils of lightning which snaked through the black clouds above. The majority of light, though, radiated from the red haze surrounding the Demon.

He opened his eyes and I could feel him watching me. He grinned as I slowly approached him.

"Well, well," he said, his voice was deep and powerful, "what brings you here, Samantha?" he asked. I could still see the black stains on his shirt, made worst by the rain.

"You said," I had to shout to be heard over the howling wind and the rolling thunder, "that you wanted my mind. Well, here I am! Take me, you red-eyed son of a bitch." time for the deal sealer. "If you can."

His smile faded, "You doubt my power." He raised a blood-red eyebrow. "You will never know what hit you, Samantha."

I remember screaming. I felt him hit me, his mind forcefully pushing at my own. I fell to my knees and the world spun out of control. I think I fell, I remember falling for a long time, the black nothingness surrounding me as we fought each other.

"Enough of this child's play!" he roared. I felt it stop, the world stopped spinning and I felt solid ground beneath me. I opened my eyes, not realizing I had shut them.

A white fog covered the ground, and everything was silent. I looked around, all I could see was black, but not clouds. Gone was the thunder and the lightning, the wind and the rain.

"Welcome," a low, throaty voice said, "to my wasteland." the mist formed cloud-like walls a little ways away. They fog parted as someone walked through it. Stigma stepped into view. He looked more like his former self, even his voice was back to normal. There were no bloodstains and his eyes were back to their normal, piercing glow. The only thing that hinted to what was taking place out side of this, wasteland, were veins of black tracing his visible flesh.

"You should not have come here." he said.

"Well, I'm an idiot so . ." I shrugged. I wondered if five minutes would seem longer in here.

"What about five minutes?" he asked. Shit!

"Never you mind." I grunted, standing up slowly. The fog reached for me, like a ghostly hand it tried to grab me and pull me back down. I swung my arm and the hands vanished. I watched the receding fog warily. Just how much more power did Stigma have over me here?

"Far more than in reality." he chuckled.

"Damn it!" I hissed. I looked him in the eyes and stood as straight as I could.

"Oh please, drop the charade, Samantha. You're like a little child, shaking on the inside and crying for the safety of your mother and father."

"You know nothing." I said.

He arched and eyebrow, "Oh? Don't be so sure. Especially now that you're here." he spread his arms to out to the sides as far as he could, gesturing around him. "This is my world. I can see into your mind, see your life. I can feel what you feel and I know what you think."

I could feel him probing my mind, searching and looking. With as much strength as I could muster I blocked him and stopped his search. He growled and pushed harder, forcing his way into my mind.

The pressure was growing and I started to feel it. Still I fought him, and he only pressed harder. My head started to throb and I fell to my knees, pressing my hands to my temples. I screwed my eyes shut as the pain worsened.

"You . . cannot . . keep . . me . . . OUT!" he roared. I felt a violent shove and was thrown onto my back. My concentration slipped and he managed to push deeper.

"Hell no!" I yelled and pushed back with a new found will. It hit him like he had hit me. He stumbled and his eyes widened in shock. Quickly the look turned to anger and I felt him return the attack. It was like he was stabbing my head over and over again. The quick burst of pain that he was hitting me with only made me angrier. I managed to stand back up. It was a slow and painful process as I had to keep fighting him. Once on my feet I focused all my attention on the Demon and pushed back.

Much harder this time.

He cried out in pain and dropped to the ground. He twisted and rolled as I returned the attack and forced him to stay down. I let all my anger, my rage and pent up hatred pour out into him. He yelled again, and I admit I took pleasure seeing him in this much pain.

He fucking deserved it!

I felt myself growing weaker very quickly. So I let up and stumbled backwards. My legs felt weak and my vision was blurry. The air seemed to grow thicker and it seemed almost as if four massive walls fell down around me and a strange light filled the dark, foggy area I was in.

I looked up as my vision cleared and saw light pouring in from all around me. The fog was quickly receding and the darkness was gone. A single figure appeared and slowly approached me. The closer the shadowy form came the more intense the light became, and it began to heat up.

The figure stopped just a few feet from me and turned its head down to look at me. Whatever it was, it was tall, taller than any human _and_ Stigma. A single hand reached down to me and I cautiously took it. The hand gripped mine and pulled me up. At my full height the figure was still a good five or six feet taller than me.

It nodded and turned, one arm gesturing towards the light. I watched the hand and then slowly approached the blinding white before me. The heat intensified even more as I grew closer. I moved slowly, unsure of the figure's intentions and my destination.

Suddenly the light rushed out to meet me like a wave of fire. It swept me up and carried me . . somewhere.

I felt myself picked up and the heat became close to unbearable. Flames swept up all around me and began to spin. It started slowly. A massive tornado of fire roared upwards and its speed picked up. The sea of flames was slowly sucked towards it, carrying me with it. I struggled against the current, not knowing which way I had come from and pretty sure that wherever it had been the fire had consumed it as it would eventually me.

The fire snaked up and into the vortex and then deposited on the outside as it carried upwards like some sort of revolving escalator. One that blinded and burned you. As I neared the tornado the flames picked up speed and soon I was racing towards it at impossible speeds.

Soon enough I reached the massive column of fire and was sucked into it faster than I could think. The fire consumed me, completely surrounding me. I rushed up through the center of the vortex and was tossed around like a rag doll. I felt a weak tug from all around me and was suddenly sucked to the side and began to spin rapidly.

Then I was on the outside of it.

The spinning mass of flames pulled me around it quickly, steadily traveling upwards and towards the top. The pace quickened and I looked down as I was carried in an ever widening circle.

The sea of flames was still beneath me and took my breath away. Waves of fire the size of tsunamis crashed down and spilled towards the massive tornado.

What the hell was this?

Suddenly I was yanked around and a near blinding flash of light stole my sight. When it returned I looked upwards towards the source of the light.

My heart almost stopped.

Far above me, above the top of the tornado, a ball of fire was forming. The flames messily spilled into a shape resembling a sphere, but tongues and waves of flame kept spilling out the sides and making the sphere change into a sloppy mess multiple times.

I watched as it grew and its form stabilized. Flashes of light pulsed from it erratically every few seconds. Every time a flash receded the ball of fire looked more and more like just that: A ball of fire.

At least, until it grew.

After numerous pulses, one massive blinding flash consumed the area around the fireball. When it was gone the sphere had grown nearly a hundred times its original size. The river of fire that trailed from the top of the tornado to the sphere had grown as well. Now it literally poured fire into the sky only to have it consumed by the burning monster above.

It was a sun.

I watched in complete awe. The massive ball of fire was growing at an alarming rate until it filled close to the entire space above and beyond. A smile unconsciously came to my lips as I watched and slowly grew. I was stunned, completely shocked by what was taking place above me.

It was . . beautiful.

Power filled the limitless space and poured through me and the tornado. It rushed through the sea of fire like an invisible current and I felt a strange life force in it. It was invigorating and rejuvenating. It swept upwards and seemed to fill the sun, continuously feeding it. The pulses returned, much more violent and far bigger this time.

I realized that I was very close to the top of the tornado now and saw that it would only be a a few more minutes until I reached the top. What would happen? Would I be pulled into the sun like I had the tornado? Then what?

I was still wondering this when I finally reached the top. I felt a sense of excitement in me, like a child going down a roller coaster or a large water slide. I was caught in the current of the river and pulled upwards towards the star above. Halfway up the river something happened.

There was a huge rush of energy and a single, massive pulse filled the entire space. When it cleared I saw the sun imploding. All the fire in the vast space rushed up in one wave to meet the collapsing star.

. . . a black hole?

There was a deafening explosion and a deep _thud_ as the fire was pushed down, but I didn't move. The waves of flame poured over me and then finally cleared, but I was still floating in the air. I looked up and saw a figure floating where the star had been. Brilliant light poured off of it and the glow grew and grew until it filled everything.

My sight was stolen and I found myself floating in space. The void around me filled by twinkling stars in the distance. I felt myself begin to turn and realized that I had no control over my body.

_Am I seeing through another person's, being's, eyes?_

Whatever it was looked down behind it. I would have gasped if I had the ability to. Below me was Earth. No city lights sparkled and no air ships or sky platforms hovered.

Suddenly I was turning again. I had my back to Earth and saw numerous streaks of light racing towards me. A ring of fire formed around me and grew. Flames poured out around me and covered me. Tendrils of fire wrapped around me and formed a massive sphere of fire, completely surrounding me. Then the fire rushed towards me and from me even. A massive fireball had formed around me, between Earth and the fast approaching lights.

I heard a voice speaking. Four words in . . Latin? I couldn't make out what the voice said, but it sounded male and very powerful. My vision filled with white and I heard that same voice speak one word.

"Sol."

Immediately my vision blacked out. I felt feeling return to me and I started feeling myself with my hands. I checked my chest, hands and skin. Well, I was back. No burns or anything else.

"And now you have seen." a strange, inhuman voice said. I looked around, but saw nothing. "The Conjoined One, that was one of the first names given to us. What you have seen was the birth of Sol, and how he saved your world from those that would destroy it."

"The Fallen." I stated.

"Wrong!" the voice roared. "They are a race you have not yet encountered. They call themselves the Risen." the voice said.

"Well who are you?" I asked. None of this was making any sense.

"One half of the whole." the voice said.

"And what the hell does that . ."

"Do not question, just wait patiently, the time is almost here. Just a minute more and you will have freedom. If you wish for victory, then help us." a second voice said. This one was the strong, powerful voice from earlier.

"How?" I asked, still turning in circles, searching for the direction of the voices. The space around me was still black and I had no idea where I was. I couldn't see a damn thing!

"Open your mind. We are but remnants of our former selves. Help us, open your mind and let us see!" the voice pleaded.

"See what?" I asked the darkness.

Silence.

I sighed and guessed I should do what they asked. I closed my eyes, not that I needed to, and lifted the barrier I had placed on my mind. I felt a rush of wind and fell onto my backside.

"Whoa." was all that came to mind. I waited for what seemed like forever. An eternity could have passed and I wouldn't have noticed. I felt my mind wandering. I wondered just how much time had passed outside of this . . wasteland.

I also thought about Rikku. I hoped that this would all work. I wanted to see her again, and I wanted to be able to talk to her, clean up this mess and get things straight.

It was as I was thinking this that I felt a breeze hit me. I looked around, shocked, but stopped when I realized that it was still dark. I heard footsteps and voices. A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me up.

"The time is now, complete your task as the mind changes! Hurry . . now!" the strong voice said from in front of me, I felt a hand on my left shoulder.

"Do not fear to use force, it will take as much as possible to truly make us see." the inhuman voice came from behind me. I felt a second hand on my right shoulder.

"Beware for the mind will try and migrate, if it does so then all hope will be lost!" came the first voice.

"Use the silver, pierce him!"

"Use your mind and heart, destroy him!"

Then both voices rang out at once, "Free us from this self-inflicted misery! Bring us out from our self-made wasteland!"

A hand on my shoulder made me open my eyes. I looked up. I was laying on my back and the sky was black. Rain pelted my face and I was soaked to the bone. I sat up quickly and coughed. My mouth must have been open because it was filled with water.

"Sam, you alright?" Paine asked. I looked up at her and nodded. She reached down to me and I grabbed her hand. She pulled me up and I swayed dangerously. She helped steady me and I gave her a questioning look. "We just threw our grenades up." she said. I nodded and reached into my pocket and pulled out the one grenade that I had kept.

Stigma was still where he had been, still covered in blood and everything. His eyes were closed and he was writhing where he floated. Rikku and Yuna were behind me and Paine. I ran forward and got as close as I could to Stigma. I pressed the release button on the grenade and dropped in a little in front of him before running back to join the others.

The thunder was rolling in more violently and lightning struck the deck erratically. We all hurried into the tiny hallway. Rikku and Yuna where heading for the elevator.

"Wait!" I said. They stopped abruptly and turned back to me.

"What do you mean?" Yuna asked.

"This is our last chance." I said. "If this works it will stop the storm and severely drain him. This time," I gripped the handle of one of my swords, "we won't fail." I paused. "_I_ won't fail." I said. A horrid scream pierced through the thunder, wind and rain. I turned around.

Stigma was writhing in pain. He began to twist sharply and the clouds surrounding him slowly dissipated. He fell face first to the deck. There was one last rumble and the rain slowed to a stop.

Stigma didn't move.

He was just laying there, prostrate, on the deck. I smirked and walked out onto the deck. Paine, Yuna and Rikku followed me. We fanned out and I slowly approached the Demon.

"H . . how?" he gasped, his voice was back to normal, as was his skin. I stopped and just stared at him. He lifted his head and glared at me, his eyes filled with fury and utter hate. His eyes were normal again too.

"Because." I shrugged. "I don't know the specifics, but we just did. You got cocky. We did earlier and it hurt us, now its hurt you more than you've ever been hurt before."

"Even so . . no one can kill me . . no one."

"Yeah well," I drew one sword and stared at the blade, "killing you isn't exactly on the menu anymore. All I have to do now is just hurt you, apparently." I said.

"Say what?" Paine asked.

"I'll tell you later. All you need to know is that we just have to beat the shit out this mother fucker." I said.

"Suits me." Paine said. I heard her draw her sword and approach me.

"Lets get this over with." I hissed.

Author's Note: Took me a little longer than normal to get this chapter out. Also, there isn't much more I can do with this story, so there will only be two more chapters. Anyway, I'll try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. (_I am also posting chapter 2 of 01011001 today._)

- Thank-you for reading.


	9. the Gift

Chapter 9: the Gift

He had some fight left in him, I never imagined that. Then again, it's been said that it isn't wise to corner a desperate animal. That's exactly what he was now, a hairsbreadth from his end, from finally being defeated.

For good.

Needless to say he was pissed and scared. I could see true fear in his eyes as I advanced. It was an amazing, almost intoxicating, feeling. For once he was the one who had to be frightened.

He struggled to push himself up, I could see him frantically wracking his mind for anything that could allow him to escape. To find a new host. The voices said that I couldn't allow that, they had told me that I needed to hurt him now while he was weak.

I was more than happy to comply.

I made to drive my sword into his back but suddenly he rolled out of the way and my blade hit the metal deck, jarring my arm. He pushed himself off the deck mid-roll and spun onto his feet. He seemed uneasy and had to struggle to balance himself. He smiled weakly and stumbled.

Paine rushed him next. He managed to duck under her first swing and back up. Paine brought the sword around without stopping and this time managed to cut him across his stomach.

The Demon winced as black blood seeped out of the wound in a heavy torrent. Blood loss meant nothing to him, we just needed to inflict as much pain as possible. Multiple gunshots were heard followed by Stigma reeling back as they all connected with his chest.

"It's . . never enough." he said, his voice breaking.

"What isn't?" I asked, coming closer to him. He eyed my sword and ducked away from Rikku, who had come up behind him, without looking. He rolled towards me but jumped out of the way of my swords.

"Any of this." he gasped. "I'm just . . so far gone . . nothing's going to change." he grinned and let out a short laugh that turned into a cough as blood started dripping from his mouth. "I'll never go back . . never be the same."

"I could actually care less." I said. Yuna hit him again, in the back this time, causing him to stumble. Paine took a swing but he twisted away, the blade nicked his side. Rikku jumped in front of him and he fell back to avoid her fast as lightning reflexes.

He landed on his back and I drove my swords through his shoulders, pinning him. Paine followed up by running his stomach through with the broadsword. He made a noise that was a cross between a gurgle and a yell.

His hands fell to his sides and for a moment he remained still. Suddenly his fingers twitched and two bolts of lightning hit me and Paine in the chest. Our swords went with us and we fell to the deck, stunned.

I regained feeling quickly. The bolt had been weak. He must have struggled to do that. I sat up quickly, a mistake, and fell back down as my dizziness mixed with the numb feeling the lightning has caused. I heard more gunshots and Rikku yelling.

I got up a little more slowly this time. Paine was already standing. She took a deep breath and lifted her sword. Stigma was dodging an assault from Rikku.

She twisted and turned, spinning after every move, her blades twirling in her hands as she moved. She danced around him, doing no serious damage but enough smaller wounds to irritate him. And in his weakened state it would seem a lot worse than that.

He could barely move. He tried numerous times to fight back but all his efforts were in vain. But now it looked almost as if he wasn't even trying. He was just watching her, his eyes followed her every move, studying her.

A renewed fire entered his eyes.

"Oh fuck no!" I yelled. He glanced at me and smiled. Shit.

He grabbed one of Rikku's arms and threw her down. He took a deep breath and glanced at Yuna.

"Yuna, move!" I yelled. She managed to get out of range of the shockwave. So we were back to those now. Perfect. I moved to avoid one as well. Paine charged him and danced around a shockwave. Her sword struck his arm. The Demon grabbed the blade and hissed, quickly letting go as smoke rose from his fingers.

More gunshots. This time she didn't stop until both clips were empty. Stigma growled and went for her. He was in front of her in the blink of an eye. Paine, Rikku and I charged forward. Yuna backed up, staring at him. Her eyes wide with fear. He picked her up and tossed her into Paine. He whirled around and grabbed Rikku. I swung at his side but he just stepped out of the way and grabbed me.

He looked at me and then Rikku. He smiled and dropped Rikku. Stigma looked at me for only a second before slamming me against the deck. How the fuck did he recover so quickly?! He kept his hand on my throat and looked over at Rikku.

"You know," he said, turning to me, "she won't miss you for too long." a bullet hit his shoulder and he ducked his head to make it a harder target. "Fucking wench." he growled. Suddenly he was gone. I heard Paine and Yuna cry out.

I quickly jumped up and turned around. Stigma had thrown Paine down and was holding Yuna up. I grabbed my swords and raced towards him. I got as close as I could to him. I swung both my swords at him but he simply batted me aside. I landed in the middle of the deck. Stigma, Yuna, and Paine were in front of me and Rikku was on the other side of them.

Stigma lifted his hand and the air around it seemed to thicken with energy as it gathered in his palm. I heard Rikku say something. Stigma looked away for a moment, that was all I needed. While he was distracted I picked up a sword and threw it like a javelin. It stabbed the Demon's side and stayed there. He grimaced and dropped Yuna. Paine was already up. Stigma turned to them but I stood and lifted my other sword. Paine and Yuna were about to try and attack him.

"Go!" I yelled. Paine's look was one of disbelief and shock. She saw the energy Stigma was building up and nodded. Stigma was trying to decide who to focus on. The fleeing girls or me.

Guess who he settled on?

He turned to me and with one last smile launched a single, massive shockwave at me.

*******

Rikku screamed.

The flash of energy that flew from Stigma's hand erupted into a massive cloud of smoke. Paine grabbed her and pushed her towards the elevator door. Rikku tried to resist. She wanted to run to where she had seen Sam. The woman had been holding a single sword, ready to die rather than let him touch the other three.

She was too dazed to do anything. So she did as Paine said and dashed into the elevator. Her two friends entered the elevator too and Paine hit the button for the cabin once the doors closed.

The warrior turned to the thief, concern briefly flashing through her crimson eyes. The younger girl was shaking, her eyes wide and staring into space.

"Rikku . ." Paine reached for her friend to try and comfort her, but Rikku just shrank away from her. Paine slowly withdrew her hand and stared at the floor.

"Is she . ." Yuna couldn't finish.

Paine shrugged, "I don't know." she sighed. "More than likely. That blast was huge. If it didn't blow her to pieces it threw her off the airship." Rikku whimpered at what Paine said. The warrior silently cursed herself for her choice of words and shook her head as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Rikku rushed out passed the other two and ran up the stairs.

She ran into her room and dropped into a corner, curling up into a ball. The shock was wearing off, but then the tears came. She didn't know why she felt so strongly for the other girl, but all she knew was that she was gone.

Sam was dead.

She tried to tell herself that it wasn't true, that Sam was still alive, that the blast hadn't killed her and even now she was up on the deck fighting Stigma.

So if not dead she was abandoned.

Rikku shook her head vigorously. She would never abandon Sam, she was dead. That was all there was to it.

"Help me." she whimpered. "Please, someone." she looked up to see no one in the room. The door slammed shut, making her yelp. She looked around, but there was nobody there. A faint shimmer ran down the door.

Two pinpricks of red light appeared in the air and slowly a form faded in around them. Rikku screamed. Stigma smiled and walked over to where she was sitting. Suddenly the look in his eyes changed. They flickered to a look of confusion, concern, and even sorrow. But that look vanished.

The smile was gone and he slowly picked her up. Rikku struggled in his grip, but could do nothing. Quickly her fear turned to fury.

"You _BASTARD_!" she screamed. "You killed her, you killed her you murdering son of a bitch! I hate you!" she screamed. Stigma arched and eyebrow and shoved her against the wall. He leaned close to her and she could hear him breathing, it was ragged and slow.

"And what if I told you, that you could see her again?" he asked with a laugh.

Rikku's spiral eyes burned with hatred, "Liar!" she yelled. Stigma shook his head.

"Only not in this life. This world. But the next." he whispered. Confusion penetrated the thick wall of hatred burning in Rikku. "I am in need of a host, and you would be the perfect choice for our first female host."

_'Our.'? What did he mean by that?_

"How?" Rikku asked, her voice fearful.

"Simple. I could cut your ties to this world as I entered your body, it would be completely painless and soon you would be with her." he smiled. "Take the word of one immortal, release your soul to me and you will be with her soon enough." he smiled, it was gentle and caring.

Rikku said nothing and he didn't wait for her to. He pressed himself against her and brought his mouth to her neck. His lips parted and he just barely pricked her with his fangs. She jumped when she felt it. For a split second his eyes flickered again. A kind of confusion spread through his mind, but it was only for a second.

_She obviously knows what I can do_, he smiled, _not to worry little one, you will see nothing terrible_.

He needed her relaxed, that would make the transition easier for the both of them. He slowly began to release his aura. It surrounded them as he began to manipulate her mind.

At first she saw nothing, the whole world blacked out and she sank deeper and deeper into the abyss. This was not like any normal bite. With his aura surrounding them and his mind slowly entering hers this would be far more powerful, she would even believe it to be true.

She opened her eyes and saw white. It was wrinkled and faded. She lifted her head and found herself lying in a bed, her face had been buried in a pillow.

She looked around and realized that she was in her room. It was dark so it must have been at night. She felt movement behind her and turned. Sam was curled up beside her in the bed. Rikku watched her, something tugging at the back of her mind, something saying that this wasn't right.

But how could it not have been? She lowered her head back to her pillow and watched Sam. Slowly the girl's eyes opened and locked on Rikku's.

Sam smiled, "Hey Rikku." she said, her voice heavy with sleep. "How long have you been awake?"

"Just a few seconds really." Rikku answered. Sam's ice eyes trailed to the door and then back to Rikku. She moved closer to the thief and ran a hand through her blonde hair.

"I really like you're hair when it's down." she whispered. Her hand moved slowly to Rikku's cheek, making her gasp. Her skin was ice cold. Then again, it always was. Sam withdrew her hand, "Sorry." her face turned pink. Rikku shook her head.

"It's okay." Rikku said. Sam gently placed her hand back on Rikku's cheek and leaned in. Sam gently kissed Rikku, her lips pressing softly against the thief's. Something in Rikku's mind screamed to stop, that this wasn't right.

Something did seem off, but nothing felt wrong. Everything felt like it should. Better even. Rikku closed her eyes and leaned into the kiss. She reached a hand around Sam's neck and pulled her in. She felt two arms snake around her waist and hold her close. The kiss deepened and Rikku found that while she was happy there was still something wrong. Something that didn't belong.

_Sam is dead!_

The voice screamed at her. Something appeared in her mind, an image, a scene. Stigma launching a charged shockwave at Sam. The massive cloud after it had hit.

Sam was . . dead?

She opened her eyes and pulled away. Sam's eyes opened and she looked at Rikku, confused.

"Rikku, is something . ."

Rikku shook her head and backed away, "You . . you . . this can't be real." she stammered.

"What do you mean, of course this is real." Sam laughed. Rikku shook her head harder and backed up again, falling off the bed. Sam watched her with concern. "Rikku, are you . ."

"Stigma, he killed you! I saw it!" she said hurriedly.

"Stigma? Rikku, who is Stigma?"

Rikku shook her head and backed up against the wall, this wasn't real, none of it was! Then why did it feel so right. What was going on?! Then everything vanished. Well, not exactly. Fire, it was everywhere. It swept out of nowhere and consumed everything. It swirled around her and formed a flaming cage. The heat grew unbearable and she curled up into a ball, crying. This had to be a nightmare . . .

Then why couldn't she wake up?

*******

Fuck, shit, damn it! I sighed inwardly and kept as still as possible. I had absolutely no idea where on the deck I was. That damned shockwave created a huge cloud and it seemed to be lingering.

Maybe I should ask it if it wanted to stay for supper.

What had surprised me was that Stigma had missed. And not by accident. At the last second his eyes changed. The shockwave had hit the deck. My guess was that it had made a huge hole. The brunt of the blast had hit the Celsius, the force of the blast had thrown me, but I didn't know how far.

Slowly, and I mean slowly, the cloud started to dissipate. I waited until the cloud was gone to get up. Luckily I hadn't landed too close to the edge of the Celsius. One sword was laying nearby. The other was still in the middle of the deck. Stigma must have pulled it out once he released the shockwave. As I suspected, a good sized hole had been punched into the deck.

I sheathed the first sword and walked to the other. I sheathed it as well. For a second I stood in the middle of the deck.

_Where's Stigma?_

Fuck!

I ran to the elevator and hit the button for the cabin. Halfway down I threw what could be described as a fit. Why the hell did it always take so fucking long! It seemed as though the more important it was the slower this thing went.

Finally it stopped. I muttered something in Latin and ran down the hall and out the door. I heard a bang and looked up to see Paine and Yuna hammering the door to Rikku's room.

_No . . ._

I ran up the stairs and jumped over the couch. That thing was starting to really tick me off.

"Outta the way!" I yelled. Paine and Yuna's faces told me that they didn't expect to see me again . . ever.

"Sam?" Yuna whispered.

"The one and only!" I growled, drawing both my swords and heading for the door.

"But . . you're dead!" Paine stammered. For once the warrior looked to be at a loss for words.

"Not yet." they moved as I stepped in front on the door. I hit it once with a sword. The blade struck something. "He's warded the door." I breathed. I gathered energy and forced it into my sword. I hit the door and there was a flash of electricity. The ward shimmered, but remained. It hit it again and again. Each time the ward seemed to weaken but not by much. "Mother fucker!" I yelled. I gathered as much energy as I could and pushed it into both swords. I raised them both at once and slammed them against the door. With a flash the ward exploded. I opened the door and ran into the room.

Stigma was pressed against Rikku, his aura surrounded the two. His fists were clenched and Rikku seemed to be struggling. I yelled and ran forward. I ran into some kind of barrier and fell onto my ass like and idiot.

"Wha . . ?" Yuna gasped.

"Is he raping her?" Paine asked. I shook my head and stood. She was being held off the floor by the Demon's body and he was pressed hard against her. It really did look like he was raping her.

Suddenly he backed away from her. The aura faded and she fell to the floor. She groaned and twisted where she was laying. Stigma looked down at her and then turned to look at me.

The look of confusion in his eyes didn't fade this time. The barrier vanished and so did the Demon. I dropped my swords and ran to Rikku. I dropped down next to her and reached into my jumpsuit. I placed a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

Her hand gripped mine and pulled it towards her face. I didn't realize what she was doing. She bit my hand . . hard.

"Son of a . . bitch!" I gasped. I pulled out a tranquilizer and pressed it to her neck. A moment later her grip on my hand faded to nothing. I pulled it free and looked at the bite mark. She had broken the skin and my hand was bleeding. I pocketed the empty tranquilizer and picked Rikku up. I carried her to the bed and laid her down.

Yuna ran to Rikku and started crying. I went into the bathroom and washed the cut off. After I dried it I came back into the room. Paine stopped me.

"How did you live?" she asked. Her voice was cold.

"He missed." I said. "On purpose, too, I think. He's changing Paine. We did something to him. He's changing." I walked passed her and stopped. "He's fighting himself. He's not just one being." I explained to her and Yuna what had happened to me while in Stigma's head.

"So he's becoming good now?" Yuna asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know about good, but better." I said.

"Do you think he'll try anything?" Paine asked. I shook my head.

"I honestly don't." I said. "Even if he does, I'll just have Rikku bite him."

Yuna nodded, "Paine, can I talk to you?" she asked. The warrior nodded and the two walked out onto the balcony. Paine closed the door behind them. I walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge. I stroked Rikku's hair and watched her. If they thought I was dead, then I would have to explain it to her when she woke up.

*******

I don't know how long it was, maybe ten minutes, maybe twenty. I sat watching Rikku and thinking. I tried working out just what was going to happen now that everything was over.

"It is confusing, isn't it?" I heard someone say.

Stigma.

I sat up and my eyes found his. He looked down at Rikku and sighed. "I have removed the visions. They have been gone for some time." he looked back at me. "You, nor any other human, should ever forgive us for what we have done. We have become a monster. We can only hope to somehow make it up to your people, somehow. To apologize, in a significant way, one that could pay back for all that we have done."

"Is there such a way?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Maybe." he sighed. "For now, we would like to repay you for helping us. You see, when you were seeing certain aspects of us, our minds, we also saw into yours. And what we saw there helped to weaken the darkness inside us."

"What was it?"

"Love." he answered. His eyes met mine and I saw that he was serious. "Then, when we bit her, we saw it again. And it was her love for you that allowed her to see that the visions were false. It allowed her to resist us. It is strong. Beautiful, even. And that is what we want you to see."

"See?" I asked. I stood up and glared at him. "What do you mean?"

"First," he held up a hand, "allow us to say that no harm will come to you or her. Not from us anyway. We want you to see what we have seen. Her love for you." he stepped closer to me and gently placed a hand on my shoulder. I stiffened and sucked in a breath. He leaned down and I felt him prick my skin. He lifted his head and looked me in the eyes. "This, Samantha, is a gift."

What happened next, what I saw, is indescribable. What I felt . . was a comforting warmth that filled me and wouldn't leave. A flurry of colors, feelings, thoughts. It was beautiful, the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen. It felt better than anything I have ever felt.

I felt safe, secure. Comforted by warming colors and gentle feeling and caring thoughts, loving words. I was seeing her love for me. Stigma had been right, it was strong. Overwhelming, even.

After a while it ended. I didn't want it to, and I laughed at the thought that I actually didn't want one of his visions to end. I felt a soft surface beneath me. I opened my eyes and found that I was laying on my side on the bed, facing Rikku who was cuddled up against me.

Had Stigma laid me on the bed?

Rikku stirred and it was my guess that she was waking up. I sighed. How would she react. She thought I was dead. I would have to tell her what happened, and one other thing.

Something that I'd realized not too long ago, something that I would have hated to never tell her. I had to let her know.

Author's Note: _Ah, one more chapter left. This chapter was not very long and the next won't be either. Still, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Parts of this chapter were inspired by three songs: _Never Enough _by _Fiver Finger Death Punch, Inside the Fire _by _Disturbed, _and _Engraved Within _by_ Serenity._ Also, thank-you to all who reviewed the last chapter._

- Thank-you for reading.


	10. Aftermath

Chapter 10: Aftermath

She screamed.

Well, not instantly. First she yawned, looked around and saw me, blinked a few times . . and _then_ she screamed. I tried to calm her down, without thinking, by placing a hand on her shoulder. She just flew off the bed and hit the floor.

This all happened in under three seconds.

A moment later Paine and Yuna ran into the room, eyes wide, thinking the worst. They found me sitting on the bed, shaking my head, and Rikku cowering on the floor. Yuna was watching us with her mouth on the floor and Paine just rolled her eyes.

I gave the silver-haired woman a pleading look, knowing that Rikku would just freak out again if I tried to get closer to her. Paine nodded and walked over to the cowering blonde.

"Rikku," she leaned down to the younger girl, "Sam isn't dead!"

"But . . but . . I, we, you . . saw her. Stigma killed her. You . . you said that if she wasn't blown to pieces then she was thrown off the ship . ." Paine sighed and covered her mouth with a gloved hand.

Rikku still didn't stop talking.

"Rikku!" Paine snapped. The younger girl stopped talking, "Stigma missed, on purpose. A lot happened that we didn't know about. He's gone now," she turned to me, "right?"

I shrugged, "Most likely. Even if he isn't he told me that he wouldn't hurt any of us."

"How do you know he's telling the truth?" Yuna asked.

"He can't lie." I said. She nodded, remembering what I had said before this all started.

"So Sam really . . isn't dead?" Rikku whimpered. Paine nodded and turned to me.

"I'll let you explain this. Yuna, let's go." she and Yuna left the room, closing the door on their way out. Rikku looked from me to the door and then her eyes lingered in midair. Finally she blinked and literally jumped onto the bed and almost killed me with a hug.

"I'm so glad you're . . I thought that . ." she leaned against my chest and started crying. I wrapped my arms around her and started to whisper to her, saying that it was alright, that everything was fine.

After five minutes she stopped crying but didn't let go.

"Rikku," I whispered.

"Hm?"

"I can't breathe." she immediately let go and smiled.

"Sorry."

"At least I know you were worried."

"So . . what happened?" she asked. I sighed and started explaining. I told her all that I needed to. From what happened in Stigma's head, after the shockwave nearly hit me, and how Stigma had almost possessed her.

"After he left I went to give you a tranquilizer, so that you would calm down. Well, when I tried to steady you . ." I held up my hand, "you bit me." she gasped and grabbed my hand. She studied the bite mark and then looked up at me. She looked as if she might cry. "Please don't." I said with a laugh.

"I didn't mean to . ."

"I know, I know." I smiled. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine." she nodded and let go of my hand. I looked into her eyes and sighed. "There's one other thing that happened while you were out."

She tilted her head to the side, "What is it?"

"Yuna and Paine were outside and the door was closed. Stigma, well, appeared and started talking to me."

"What did he want?" Rikku asked. She looked a little scared, "He wanted to apologize. He said that no human should ever forgive him for what he did. He said that he wanted to find a way to redeem himself. To make up for all that he's done. He said that he also wanted to do something for me." I took Rikku's hand in mine and held it. "He wanted to show me something."

"What you mean?" she asked. I pointed to my neck. She leaned closer and suddenly reached for my neck. I felt her fingers brush my skin and her breath caught. She moved back and stared at me. "He bit you?"

"Yes but . ." she tried to say something and I stopped her. "It was different this time. He said that he saw something that he wanted me to see. Something that he said was beautiful. I have to agree with him. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." I was smiling as I remembered the colors and feeling. The soaring emotions and warmth.

"What did he show you?"

"In a way . . you." I smiled. "He showed me your love for . . me." I said with a short laugh. I leaned forward and hugged her. She didn't expect it and seemed a little nervous. "And Rikku, it was amazing." I let go and looked her in the eyes. "And then I after it ended I found that he'd laid me on the bed next to you. And I realized something. Something I've been hiding and ignoring. I'm not sure why I feel this way, I never have before. Rikku, I love you." I said.

I was shocked to find that a tear was rolling down my cheek. She looked shocked, but slowly she reached a hand out and wiped the tear away. She smiled, it was small but it spoke volumes.

"Sam . . I . . ." she moved closer to me and placed her hand on my cheek. She kissed me. She closed the gap and her mouth met mine. I pulled back slowly, reluctantly, and she leaned leaned into me, her head on my chest.

A knock at the door made us stand up.

I walked slowly to the door and opened it. Paine looked at me and then back at Rikku who was still on the bed. "Something's approaching the airship. Looks like nothing we've ever seen before."

"Well what does it look like?"

"A ship. It's small and it's heading for the deck." Paine said. I nodded and went went down to the elevator. Rikku, Yuna and Paine followed. By the time we reached the deck the small craft had already landed. It was sliver and shaped like a small disc. Basically a tiny flying saucer.

A hatch on the side opened and two people stepped out. One was Zach. The other was Cassidy. They both looked dirty and tired. Zach's orange jumpsuit was open and the top was pulled down to his waist. Cassidy's robes had been replaced by a kind of blanket. Symbols and markings adorned the black material. It was draped over her head like a hood and a chain secured it around her neck. The rest of it was draped over her arms and hung like a cape.

I crossed my arms over my chest and laughed, "Took you two long enough." I said.

Zach shook his head, "Shut up, Sam." he sighed. "We've known where you were but . . we've had some trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" I arched and eyebrow.

"Well, this is a spirit world." Zach said. "There are some creatures around here spawned by lingering souls. Stigma took control of every single creature, called fiends, and went on a rampage with them. We managed to stop any cities or villages from being destroyed, but we've been pretty caught up. All of a sudden they just stopped attacking."

I nodded, "We're not gonna have any more problems with red-eye." I said.

The two of them gaped at me. Cassidy spoke first, "You mean that you finally . . you killed . ."

"No. We beat him. He told me himself. We've won and he's, well, changed."

"But . . how?" Zach asked.

"I'll have to give you an account of what happened. It's procedure." I finally remembered something. "Oh yeah," I gestured behind me, "this is Yuna, Rikku and Paine." I turned to the three behind me. "These two are friends of mine, Zach and Cassidy." I turned back to the two soldiers. "These three helped me stop Stigma for good."

Cassidy nodded, "Then we owe them thanks."

"Sam," Zach motioned for me to come closer, I moved to where the other two stood, "anytime you're ready to get off this rock just tell me."

"Right." I drawled. I knew what he really meant.

"Yunie?" I heard Rikku say behind us. I turned and saw her whispering something to Yuna. She stopped and looked at Yuna hopefully. Yuna looked around, I could tell she was thinking something over. Finally she looked back at Rikku and nodded. The blonde motioned for me to come back to them.

Why did I have keep moving?

I sighed and walked back to them. "If it's all possible," Yuna started, "we'd be more than happy if you stayed here." my jaw dropped. I looked from her to Rikku and then back at Yuna. I held up a finger and went back to Zach.

"Zach." I sighed. "I'm staying." I said quickly. He blinked.

"Are you serious?" he asked.

"Yes. The biggest threat to Earth is going to stop attacking humans, the rest of the Fallen should be fairly easy to get rid of. You don't need me anymore. Consider this my recognition. It seems to me like a good way to end my military career anyway. I finally beat my biggest obsession." I said. Zach said nothing.

"Well, that's your decision." Cassidy said. "We'll still need your account of what happened, but that's really all. Zach and I will return to the ship to rest, but then we'll come back for the report. I'll bring some of your clothes and things. That should be it."

"Sam, think about this. You're an Earthling. You were born to a much more advanced society. Are you sure you want to do this?" Zach asked.

"I'm sure." I said.

He sighed, "Fine. We'll come back . . tomorrow, I guess." he said. He and Cassidy got back into the small ship and took off.

"You're staying?" a voice beside me asked. I hadn't noticed that Rikku had come up behind me. I turned to her and nodded. A huge grin appeared on her face and she started jumping up and down wildly. I grabbed her shoulders and stopped her.

"Don't get so excited." I said. I walked over to Yuna and explained what was going to happen to her. We went back down to the cabin after and agreed that we just needed to relax for the rest of the day.

Rikku was too excited to do that.

She just talked and talked for the rest of the day. At least she was back to her old, bubbly self. Just as long as she didn't start using that annoying nickname she gave me.

After a well-deserved dinner we all went to our rooms. Rikku had told Yuna that she didn't mind me staying in hers. We both took a shower and she gave me some clothes to sleep in.

I took a shower after her and just seemed to melt at the water's touch. I think I just stood there for a good ten minutes before bathing. I nearly fell asleep under the spray. Finally I got out and dried. I put on the clothes Rikku had given me. It was similar to what she wore, just a really long shirt.

I came out of the bathroom and turned the light off. Instantly I was plunged into darkness. The lamp was off and very little light seemed to be coming from the window. I tried to wait for my eyes to adjust but got lazy and decided not to.

I walked cautiously to the bed, thankful that we moved all the cases and such earlier. I finally felt the bed and climbed in slowly, careful not to make too much movement in case Rikku was asleep. I relaxed under the covers and slowly closed my eyes. I felt her move beside me and opened my eyes.

I turned my head and found her wide awake and watching me.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked, seeing something in her eyes.

"Just how happy I am that you're staying." she said.

"I'm glad I decided to stay too." I said. She moved closer to me and smiled.

"And now we don't have to worry about Stigma." she said.

"You mean I don't." I said with a laugh. She nodded and I noticed that she had been looking into my eyes.

"Your eyes . . they're so pretty." she said. She gently placed a hand on my neck and for a moment did nothing. Then she leaned down and kissed my neck. She moved up to my jaw and then my lips. We stayed like that for a minute until I felt her lips part. My heart suddenly started beating faster and seemed to speed up when I felt her tongue against my lips. I slowly opened my mouth and we both jumped when our tongues met.

She pressed herself against me and moved her body to where it seemed to fit perfectly against my own. Her right hand gripped my shoulder and she placed her left hand on my side. I was nervous, shaking. I felt her left hand slowly move from my side to my stomach and then slowly upwards.

I quickly grabbed her hand and broke away from the kiss. I hung my head and she waited. I took a deep breath and looked up and into her green eyes.

"Not yet." I said. "Not yet." I looked up and she nodded slowly. I let go of her hand. She kissed me once and then laid down. I laid back down and curled up against her. She wrapped her arms around me and I smiled.

My life was looking a whole lot better.

Author's Note: _I said it wouldn't be long. I've really enjoyed writing this story. I have a idea for a sequel, but I don't know if I'll write it or not. If I do it will be more about the Fallen and the other race that I mentioned: the Risen. Well, I thank all of you for reading and especially to those who reviewed. Until my next story!_

- Thank-you for reading.


	11. Into the Inferno: Teaser

Into the Inferno

Being lost in this cauldron of calamity was something I'd hoped never to happen, again. The starkness and black; cold, uncaring and corrupt. That's what it was. Fit like a glove, really. The whole fucking place sent an itch across my skin. The creeping, crawling feeling of something that just was not _right_ in any such manner. No matter what, nothing could shake it. I never wanted to come back to this place, but I had no choice. Nothing had changed. Nothing at all. I could hear the roaring crackle of fire in the deep, and the heat – the air thick with it – cut through even the strongest temperature regulators. For all its vastness I felt closed in and crushed by an unwelcome weight. The darkness crushed down on my skull, ribs, arms and legs. The air felt thin, and for a minute I almost started to panic with the hallucination that I couldn't breathe. I felt sick- I felt small. All the morale was sapped from your soul and you were left a muddy pit. We'd all thought, "Won't get to us this time, _fuck yeah_!" And with enthusiastic fist-pumps toward the sky we dropped down in secret for our goal. Well, fuck-en A, man. God, I hated this place.

I moved along, keeping close to the ground and well in the shadows (not that there was really any place _with_ light, in here, save for in the deeper circles by the fires and rivers of molten metal). The commotion of life – or _near_-life, really – ricocheted off the walls and bounced around in our ears. A soupy cocktail of growls, screams and other unworldly noises in speech that only the higher powers could unravel into something that made sense. Probably did to _them_, but then again they weren't human, so fuck it. Or, more appropriately in this case, "fuck that noise." I pressed up against a wall, every sensor and sensory mechanism awake and alert for any of the dastardly bastards we'd come across before. For all we prided ourselves on as soldiers of Man and its Fleets, I was pretty sure that we were all experiencing similar symptoms of belittlement and meekness. I woulda taken rainbows and butterflies over this.

Let me make this as clear as I possibly can: I _hate_ goddamned rainbows and butterflies.

A voice, crisp and clear, resounded throughout my helmet's comm system, "North quadrant clear, awaiting confirmation on all sides. Rho recon, report."

"Negative on tangos, Alpha. Route's clear, at least it seems to be." I turned around, eyeing the SpecOps BBIA elements as they fell into place, weapons trained and comms quiet. They always did creep me out a bit. But just a bit. I was admittedly honored to have been given authority over a company. InAs was paramount to legendary in the Command. Surgical assault teams that were calamity-capable when given the proper authorization. It was absolutely no surprise to me that they'd been selected to back the charge into the Forge. What _did_ give me cause to scratch my head was why in the friggin' Hell hadn't they been the ones to do it the _first_ damned time! I mean I was definitely not the only one partial to the postulation that maybe, just _maybe_, things woulda gone plenty smoother than they had had InAs been the ones chosen initially!

The ION in my suit kicked on, weapons forming from the armor as I slipped forward through the black, slick as water across glass. As the self-elected forward member of the company I had more on the line than anyone behind me, really. Not that I couldn't hold my own, but I always envied the ones in the middle. Most people said that the middle was really the worst place to be, if not the back, but I tended to disagree. CQC had never been my favorite sport, despite my skill with a blade.

"Rain, rain, go away..." Someone muttered into their mic.

"We gonna get started soon?" Another asked, their voice on edge and bristling with anticipation.

"Stow the chatter!" The growling tone could only be from a Sergeant Major. They seemed prone to extreme seriousness, sometimes.

"Alpha zero, we're all clear here. Perimeter set and awaiting orders," the last team's CO informed.

"Roger, Gamma recon. Rho, Beta, Mu and Xi: proceed forward to the Anvil Lip. Do not engage unless unavoidable. Operation: Iron, stage two underway." The Alpha levied out his commands and then paused. It felt like he was searching for something to say, maybe something he'd forgotten. A deep, regretful sigh heralded his closing words, "If only prayers worked.. this valley's got one helluva shadow... Godspeed to the hell-bound, soldiers."

The Anvil Lip, the exact place where the last attempt at attacking the Forge climaxed and sank. No doubt whatever the Fallen had devised as a new security detail would be worse than before. It hadn't so much been what was there as it'd been what came _next_. The Blight never showed his face, but he'd sure as hell made sure we got a hellfire-warm reception from his legions of happy monsters. I'd gotten close enough to shake hands with some of them, last time. Although I'd opted not to, and courteously excused myself from the premises along with the rest of my party. Yeah, uh.. it hadn't gone well... At all. And our failure had turned into the talk of High Command. Then again, "failure" felt too weak a word. More like.. glaring megaflop. And even _that_ did not come close to describing just how shitty everything had turned out after the catastrophic debacle of the now-infamous Operation: Bar Sinister.

Almost not surprisingly it was total BS. Funny, right?

We moved along as silently as thieves, stealing through corridors and immeasurable expanses of swallowing black, all of it frighteningly devoid of life. The voices of beasts clamored against the walls and floor; resounding off the ceiling and bouncing back to our ears to remind us of the dangers ahead. It made them feel all so terribly close, and for all I knew they could have been right up next to me, what with the near-total lack of light. Our helmet optics displayed very little, naught more than the faintest patches of shapes to clarify what was a wall and what was emptiness. That vacuity stretched on and on; always mocking, never shrinking.

I froze in step, an icy pain slipping down around my spine from the base of my skull. The prickling, needlepoint-fine stabs of fear cascaded across my body, resonating in time with my hastened heartbeat. I knew that feeling- I knew it well. I twisted 'round on the balls of my feet – which you'd think would be kinda hard to do in armor – looking everywhere at once for the source of this sinister presence. The soldiers behind me paused in confusion.

"Something the matter, ma'am?" One of them asked, his voice sounding far away.

They didn't feel it! Of course not, no one could. No one but me. Icy palms passed across my skin, making me sweat despite the suit's efforts. Everything about it was chilled, and it crept up into my head to pound in resounding beats against the walls of my skull. I shut my eyes tight and fought hard against the tide of fear, but I could hardly stem it. I stumbled, fighting for control over my own muscles as they struggled to turn me around and run back to where some misguided voice told me was safety. But I couldn't listen, I couldn't let this place or that _thing_ get the best of me!

God, _it wouldn't go away_! _Why wouldn't it go away_?

I could sense a hand on my shoulder, and barely registered the sound of voices in the comm. They all ran together and overlapped into one, and I wouldn't have been able to make any sense of it had I wanted to. Not because I could hardly focus on the words, but because something _else_ was speaking over them, now.

Like the low, rumbling of the earth as it rolled through space his voice dripped across my consciousness, "_Poor, poor little Samantha. Come here to have a go, again? Why, I would have thought that our last little.. encounter.. would have dampened your hunger for a bite. We would not want to see you choke, now, would we? Then again, your kind's unparalleled stubbornness always has been quite the failing throughout your miserable little run in life, now _hasn't it_?_" He had a tendency to get angrier as he rambled on and on. Maybe he just didn't have great reign over his emotions, or something.

"Get out of my head, get out of my head, get out of my head, get out of my head _you fucking monster get out of my head_!" I started screaming deliriously, aware only of the presence that enveloped me. Shivers, like snakes, combed across my brain. I could feel his fingers, they were inside my head! He was reaching inside, gripping at handfuls of mush and strands. He was emptying me all over again- he was pulling away at my mind and there was nothing I could do!

"_Shush, my little princess. Quiet your cries. No one can hear you, and no one cares. It will all be over soon; there is nothing you can do. It's quite all right, really. You'll be dead before you even realize what's happened. No need to fret. Just give in._" His voice was a mockery at something soothing and sweet, but the powerful hooks lacing his words caught on and dug in deep, dragging me down without a fight. I shook my heard hard, as if that would throw off his grip and release me from his hold. I had to warn the others, if there was still time. He knew I was here, and now he was in my head. That meant he knew how many soldiers were here; the size of the force above and what we planned to do. We were all in grave danger, maybe even more than the last time!

My internal defenses kicked in as if a delayed reaction to a wound or blow, and violently fought against the tide of psionic assault, forcing around his hands and choking his wrists. I could hear him growling in fury, possibly at the notion of some little smear in existence daring to resist something as timeless and powerful as himself. Well, if he thought he was just gonna waltz into my head _again_ and steal more than just my sanity then _he_ had _another fucking thing coming_!

With a violent snap I was torn back into total consciousness, now aware of the rumbling explosions of gunfire and the ear-splitting screams of bloodthirsty rage spraying from the mouths of the maddened horrors under The Infection's command. A wall built up in my head to keep _it_ out, and I turned my now undivided attention to the situation at hand.

"Good to have you back, Legate Major!" An officer greeted, apparently noticing my altered vitals from one HUD or another. I analyzed the fray in whole as I responded, demanding a SitRep. "Hostiles swarmed us as soon as we lost you. Something tells me Command's gonna get bit in the ass for not listening to you." I could see him over by a far wall, hunkered down and weapons alight. Something howled in the darkness, its cry piercing the din with terrifying clarity. Whether it was in pain or just furious, I couldn't tell. I had been pulled to the middle of the assembly for my own protection, and the front line of defense was holding well, for now. The armor over my right hand ran and congealed into a new shape, with target indicators on my HUD blinking to life.

I pushed ahead, closer to the front, and opened fire on the nearest threat. A barrier had been laid down, composed of burning plasma. Not lethal to Fallen in its current size, but still painful and difficult to pass through. While they were caught pushing through the net we took advantage and mowed them down. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Most larger Fallen can take a horrifyingly large amount of punishment before even slowing down. Thankfully no such entities were among the hordes swarming on our position.

"Alpha, this is Rho, are you still with us?" I had to yell, even with the suit buffering as much sound as possible the racket was nearly impossible to hear clearly through.

I heard a low growl as the comm cut on, it sounded like one of frustration, and then he answered, "I read you, Rho. Still kickin', but maybe not for long."

"Are we getting _any_ support from orbital or have they ducked out again?" I asked. Another small troop of Fallen punched through the barrier and were bearing down on us fast. "Um, you'll have to wait a sec, Alpha, we've got trouble." I hit the nearest element on the shoulder and signed I would be heading in to meet them. She nodded, and four other InAs elements elected to join me. On my mark we broke through the front line and collided with the enemy. My blade blinked into real space for a crushing blow and a ferocious uppercut to the hound-monster's abdomen. It could only let out a yelp as I danced around the diving strike of another and immediately went for a killing blow against a third. The charge lasted only seconds, and soon all that remained of the horrid beasts was rotting carcasses and puddles of fluid and guts. We backtracked to the safety of the company, and I let the Alpha know I had survived.

"As to your question, Rho, the answer is 'no'. I requested a network lockdown on the Forge and orbital backup, but until the ships are in immediate danger we won't see a lick of assistance, and Command doesn't think the Forge is worth a total lockdown, at least not with such a low chance of success. Apologies."

"Dammit!" I would have punched the nearest wall, but I was a little too far away for that, so I fell back on just carving another hostile to chunks with a few rounds from my firearm. That was so fucking _typical_! Command rushed into the situation all hyped up and ready to go, but the moment that it started to go sour they backed out without even trying to lend any kind of hand. You'd think that they wouldn't pull that kind of bullshit after what happened the last time an assault on the Forge failed.

The torrential horde of Fallen past the barrier lessened their assault, and slowly the crowd began to part as some invisible hands divided them neatly down the center. I reported back what I saw, and confirmation sprouted throughout the Forge from other teams who were seeing the same thing. From the darkness came light, burning wild and bright. Demonic tendrils of flame licked through the air as a unit of Ghouls armed with weapons we'd nicknamed sickle-screamers marched forward toward the plasma, and behind them came a Djinni – one of the strongest and most feared of all the Fallen breeds. Its blazing eyes flashed over the burning wall, and with the raising of a hand and the extension of a single finger it sliced the barrier in half without even so much as being close enough to _piss_ on it.

"Rho, what is your situation? Rho? Rho! Rho, report! Rho?" Alpha's tone was turning harsh with anxiety. It was moments like these that I seriously did _not_ envy their responsibilities.

"Oh, shit..!" Before I could say anything more, the Fallen were on us.

**Author's Notes**: _All right. Well, best to explain now for anyone who reads this. I did _not_ write this, another fanfiction author, "And The Adversary Succeeds" did. He will be publishing a re-envisioning of "Stigma" soon, and this is a sample of his personal alterations. His version will be longer, and probably more detailed. Honestly, I'd just as soon hand the whole thing over to him, right now. I've been wanting to rewrite Stigma myself, but with other projects already clogged up to the brim I was more than happy to hand him the reigns. His version will have a different name to more properly distinguish it from the original, and that title is "Bar Sinister." He will be remaining as true as possible to the original concept, but at the same time fleshing it out and adding his own original touches to the mix._


End file.
